A Selection from the Lyrical Poems of Robert Herrick

2. TO HIS MUSE

     Whither, mad maiden, wilt thou roam?
     Far safer 'twere to stay at home;
     Where thou mayst sit, and piping, please
     The poor and private cottages.
     Since cotes and hamlets best agree
     With this thy meaner minstrelsy.
     There with the reed thou mayst express
     The shepherd's fleecy happiness;
     And with thy Eclogues intermix:
     Some smooth and harmless Bucolics.
     There, on a hillock, thou mayst sing
     Unto a handsome shepherdling;
     Or to a girl, that keeps the neat,
     With breath more sweet than violet.
     There, there, perhaps such lines as these
     May take the simple villages;
     But for the court, the country wit
     Is despicable unto it.
     Stay then at home, and do not go
     Or fly abroad to seek for woe;
     Contempts in courts and cities dwell
     No critic haunts the poor man's cell,
     Where thou mayst hear thine own lines read
     By no one tongue there censured.
     That man's unwise will search for ill,
     And may prevent it, sitting still.