Love
Arise, my thoughts, and mount you with the sun
From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1891)
Arise, my thoughts, and mount you with the sun,
Call all the winds to make you speedy wings,
And to my fairest Maya see you run
And weep your last while wantonly she sings;
Then if you cannot move her heart to pity,
Let Oh, alas, ay me be all your ditty.
Arise, my thoughts, no more, if you return
Denied of grace which only you desire,
But let the sun your wings to ashes burn
And melt your passions in his quenchless fire;
Yet, if you move fair Maya's heart to pity,
Let smiles and love and kisses be your ditty.
Arise, my thoughts, beyond the highest star
And gently rest you in fair Maya's eye,
For that is fairer than the brightest are;
But, if she frown to see you climb so high,
Couch in her lap, and with a moving ditty,
Of smiles and love and kisses, beg for pity.
Codex Note
From Robert Jones' Second Book of Songs and Airs, 1601.
Cite this poem
MLA
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Arise, my thoughts, and mount you with the sun.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/14/.
Chicago
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Arise, my thoughts, and mount you with the sun.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/14/.
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