A Selection from the Lyrical Poems of Robert Herrick

79. MRS ELIZ: WHEELER, UNDER THE NAME OF THE LOST SHEPHERDESS

     Among the myrtles as I walk'd
     Love and my sighs thus intertalk'd:
     Tell me, said I, in deep distress,
     Where I may find my Shepherdess?
     —Thou fool, said Love, know'st thou not this?
     In every thing that's sweet she is.
     In yond' carnation go and seek,
     There thou shalt find her lip and cheek;
     In that enamell'd pansy by,
     There thou shalt have her curious eye;
     In bloom of peach and rose's bud,
     There waves the streamer of her blood.
     —'Tis true, said I; and thereupon
     I went to pluck them one by one,
     To make of parts an union;
     But on a sudden all were gone.
     At which I stopp'd; Said Love, these be
     The true resemblances of thee;
     For as these flowers, thy joys must die;
     And in the turning of an eye;
     And all thy hopes of her must wither,
     Like those short sweets here knit together.