Love
Lady, the melting crystal of your eye
From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1891)
Lady, the melting crystal of your eye
Like frozen drops upon your cheeks did lie;
Mine eye was dancing on them with delight,
And saw love's flames within them burning bright,
Which did mine eye entice
To play with burning ice;
But O, my heart thus sporting with desire,
My careless eye did set my heart on fire.
O that a drop from such a sweet fount flying
Should flame like fire and leave my heart a-dying!
I burn, my tears can never drench it
Till in your eyes I bathe my heart and quench it:
But there, alas, love with his fire lies sleeping,
And all conspire to burn my heart with weeping.
Codex Note
From Thomas Greaves' Songs of Sundry Kinds, 1604.
Cite this poem
MLA
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Lady, the melting crystal of your eye.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/72/.
Chicago
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Lady, the melting crystal of your eye.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/72/.
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