Love
What then is love, sings Corydon
From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1891)
What then is love, sings Corydon,
Since Phyllida is grown so coy?
A flattering glass to gaze upon,
A busy jest, a serious toy,
A flower still budding, never blown,
A scanty dearth in fullest store
Yielding least fruit where most is sown.
My daily note shall be therefore—
Heigh ho, chil love no more.
'Tis like a morning dewy rose
Spread fairly to the sun's arise,
But when his beams he doth disclose
That which then flourish'd quickly dies;
It is a seld-fed dying hope,
A promised bliss, a salveless sore,
An aimless mark, and erring scope.
My daily note shall be therefore,—
Heigh ho, chil love no more.
'Tis like a lamp shining to all,
Whilst in itself it doth decay;
It seems to free whom it doth thrall,
And lead our pathless thoughts astray.
It is the spring of wintered hearts
Parched by the summer's heat before
Faint hope to kindly warmth converts.
My daily note shall be therefore—
Heigh ho, chil love no more.
Codex Note
From Thomas Ford's Music of Sundry Kinds, 1607.
Cite this poem
MLA
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “What then is love, sings Corydon.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/172/.
Chicago
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “What then is love, sings Corydon.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/172/.
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