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Works of Michael Drayton


Palma Vecchio. Mars and Venus with Cupid

Odes  (1619)  
 
TO  HIS  VALENTINE  

MUSE bid the morn awake,
     Sad winter now declines,
Each bird doth choose a make;1
     This day's Saint Valentine's;
For that good bishop's sake
          Get up and let us see,
          What beauty it shall be
     That fortune us assigns.

But lo, in happy hour,
     The place wherein she lies,
In yonder climbing tow'r,
     Gilt by the glitt'ring rise;
O Jove! that in a show'r,
          As once that thund'rer did,
          When he in drops lay hid,
     That I could her surprise!

Her canopy I'll draw,
     With spangled plumes bedight,
No mortal ever saw
     So ravishing a sight;
That it the gods might awe,
          And powerfully transpierce
          The globy universe,
     Out-shooting ev'ry light.

My lips I'll softly lay
     Upon her heavenly cheek,
Dyed like the dawning day,
     As polish'd ivory sleek:
And in her ear I'll say:
          O, thou bright morning star,
          Tis I that come so far,
     My Valentine to seek.

Each little bird, this tide,
     Doth choose her loved pheer,2
Which constantly abide
     In wedlock all the year,
As nature is their guide:
          So may we two be true
          This year nor change for new,
     As turtles3 coupled were.

The sparrow, swan, the dove,
     Tho' Venus' birds they be,
Yet are they not for love
     So absolute as we:
For reason us doth move;
          They but by billing4 woo:
          Then try what we can do,
     To whom each sense is free.

Which we have more than they,
     By livelier organs sway'd,
Our appetite each way
     More by our sense obey'd:
Our passions to display
          This season us doth fit;
          Then let us follow it,
     As nature us doth lead.

One kiss in two let's break,
     Confounded with the touch;
But half words let us speak,
     Our lips employ'd so much,
Until we both grow weak;
          With sweetness of thy breath,
          O smother me to death;
     Long let our joys be such.

Let's laugh at them that choose
     Their Valentines by lot;
To wear their names that use,
     Whom idly they have got:
Such poor choice we refuse;
          Saint Valentine befriend,
          We thus this morn may spend,
     Else, Muse, awake her not.



[AJ Notes:
1. make, "mate".
2. pheer, fere, spouse.
3. turtles, turtledoves.
4. billing, kissing (of doves).]




Source:
Beeching, H. C., ed. A Selection from the Poetry of Samuel Daniel & Michael Drayton.
London: J. M. Dent & Co., 1899. 92-94.




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Images of London:
London in the time of Henry VII. MS. Roy. 16 F. ii.
London, 1510, the earliest view in print
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