Love

Dear, if you change, I'll never choose again

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

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.

✦ ✦ ✦

From John Dowland's First Book of Songs or Airs, 1597.

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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