Love

What poor astronomers are they

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

What poor astronomers are they,
Take women's eyes for stars!
And set their thoughts in battle 'ray,
To fight such idle wars;
When in the end they shall approve
'Tis but a jest drawn out of Love.

And Love itself is but a jest
Devised by idle heads,
To catch young Fancies in the nest,
And lay them in fool's beds;
That being hatched in beauty's eyes
They may be fledged ere they be wise.

But yet it is a sport to see,
How Wit will run on wheels!
While Wit cannot persuaded be,
With that which Reason feels,
That women's eyes and stars are odd
And Love is but a feigned god!

But such as will run mad with Will,
I cannot clear their sight
But leave them to their study still,
To look where is no light!
Till time too late, we make them try,
They study false Astronomy!

✦ ✦ ✦

From John Dowland's Third and Last Book of Songs or Airs, 1603.

MLA

Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “What poor astronomers are they.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/171/.

Chicago

Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “What poor astronomers are they.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/171/.

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