Love

Oft have I mused the cause to find

by Anonymous (Elizabethan songs) c. 1588–1630

From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1891)

Love

Oft have I mused the cause to find
Why Love in lady's eyes should dwell;
I thought, because himself was blind,
He look'd that they should guide him well:
And sure his hope but seldom fails,
For Love by ladies' eyes prevails.

But time at last hath taught me wit,
Although I bought my wit full dear;
For by her eyes my heart is hit,
Deep is the wound though none appear:
Their glancing beams as darts he throws,
And sure he hath no shafts but those.

I mused to see their eyes so bright,
And little thought they had been fire;
I gazed upon them with delight,
But that delight hath bred desire:
What better place can Love desire
Than that where grow both shafts and fire?

✦ ✦ ✦

From Robert Jones' Ultimum Vale or Third Book of Airs (1608).

MLA

Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Oft have I mused the cause to find.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/101/.

Chicago

Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Oft have I mused the cause to find.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/101/.

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