Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/121

 ANONYMOUS

How might I do to get a graff

Of this unspotted tree ? For all the rest arc plain but chaff,

Which seem good corn to be.

This gift alone I shall her give;

When death doth what he can, Her honest fame shall ever live

Within the mouth of man.

? by John Heywood

62 To Her Sea-faring Lover

SHALL I thus ever long, and be no whit the neare? And shall I still complain to thee, the which me will not hear?

Alas' say nay' say nay' and be no more so dumb, But open thou thy manly mouth and say that thou wilt come

Whereby my heart may think, although I see not thec, That thou wilt come thy word so sware if thou a live

man be.

The roaring hugy waves they threaten my poor ghost, And toss thec up and down the seas in danger to be lost.

Shall they not make me fear that they have swallowed thee? But as thou art most sure alive, so wilt thou come to me.

Whereby I shall go see thy ship ride on the strand, And think and say Lo where he comes and Sure here will he

land:

And then I shall lift up to thee my little hand, And thou shalt think thine heart in ease, in health to see me stand.

62 neare] nearer.

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