Love
Dear, if you change, I'll never choose again
From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1891)
Dear, if you change, I'll never choose again;
Sweet, if you shrink, I'll never think of love;
Fair, if you fail, I'll judge all beauty vain;
Wise, if too weak, more wits I'll never prove.
Dear, sweet, fair, wise! change, shrink, nor be not weak;
And, on my faith, my faith shall never break.
Earth with her flowers shall sooner heaven adorn;
Heaven her bright stars through earth's dim globe shall move;
Fire heat shall lose, and frosts of flames be born;
Air, made to shine, as black as hell shall prove:
Earth, heaven, fire, air, the world transformed shall view,
Ere I prove false to faith or strange to you.
Codex Note
From John Dowland's First Book of Songs or Airs, 1597.
Cite this poem
MLA
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Dear, if you change, I'll never choose again.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/30/.
Chicago
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Dear, if you change, I'll never choose again.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/30/.
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