A Selection from the Lyrical Poems of Robert Herrick

36. A BUCOLIC BETWIXT TWO; LACON AND THYRSIS

     LACON.  For a kiss or two, confess,
     What doth cause this pensiveness,
     Thou most lovely neat-herdess?
     Why so lonely on the hill?
     Why thy pipe by thee so still,
     That erewhile was heard so shrill?
     Tell me, do thy kine now fail
     To fulfil the milking-pail?
     Say, what is't that thou dost ail?

     THYR.  None of these; but out, alas!
     A mischance is come to pass,
     And I'll tell thee what it was:
     See, mine eyes are weeping ripe.
     LACON.  Tell, and I'll lay down my pipe.

     THYR.  I have lost my lovely steer,
     That to me was far more dear
     Than these kine which I milk here;
     Broad of forehead, large of eye,
     Party-colour'd like a pye,
     Smooth in each limb as a die;
     Clear of hoof, and clear of horn,
     Sharply pointed as a thorn;
     With a neck by yoke unworn,
     From the which hung down by strings,
     Balls of cowslips, daisy rings,
     Interplaced with ribbonings;
     Faultless every way for shape;
     Not a straw could him escape,
     Ever gamesome as an ape,
     But yet harmless as a sheep.
     Pardon, Lacon, if I weep;
     Tears will spring where woes are deep.
     Now, ai me!  ai me!  Last night
     Came a mad dog, and did bite,
     Ay, and kill'd my dear delight.

     LACON  Alack, for grief!
     THYR.  But I'll be brief.
     Hence I must, for time doth call
     Me, and my sad playmates all,
     To his evening funeral.
     Live long, Lacon; so adieu!

     LACON Mournful maid, farewell to you;
     Earth afford ye flowers to strew!