Love

The Lover's Perplexity

by James Shirley 1596–1666

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

Love

Heigh-ho, what shall a shepherd do
That is in love and cannot woo?
By sad experience now I find
That love is dumb as well as blind.
Her hair is bright, her forehead high;
Then am I taken with her eye.
Her cheeks I must commend for gay,
But then her nose hangs in my way.
Her lips I like, but then steps in
Her white and pretty dimpled chin.
But then her neck I do behold,
Fit to be hanged in chains of gold.
Her breast is soft as any down,
Beneath which lies her maiden town,
So strong and fortified within,
There is no hope to take it in.

MLA

Shirley, James. “The Lover's Perplexity.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/shirley/12/.

Chicago

Shirley, James. “The Lover's Perplexity.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/shirley/12/.

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