Love

What the Mighty Love Has Done

by John Fletcher 1576–1625

From Lyrics from the Dramatists of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1889)

Love

Hear, ye ladies that despise,
What the mighty Love has done;
Fear examples, and be wise:
Fair Calisto was a nun;
Leda, sailing on the stream
To deceive the hopes of man,
Love accounting but a dream,
Doted on a silver swan;
Danae, in a brazen tower,
Where no love was, loved a shower.

Hear, ye ladies that are coy,
What the mighty Love can do;
Fear the fierceness of the boy:
The chaste moon he makes to woo;
Vesta, kindling holy fires,
Circled round about with spies,
Never dreaming loose desires,
Doting at the altar dies;
Ilion, in a short hour, higher
He can build, and once more fire.

MLA

Fletcher, John. “What the Mighty Love Has Done.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/fletcher_j/22/.

Chicago

Fletcher, John. “What the Mighty Love Has Done.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/fletcher_j/22/.

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