THE PRIMROSE.
by Robert Herrick


      ASK me why I send you here
This sweet Infanta of the year ?
      Ask me why I send to you
This primrose, thus bepearl'd with dew ?
      I will whisper to your ears :
The sweets of love are mix'd with tears.

      Ask me why this flower does show
So yellow-green, and sickly too ?
      Ask me why the stalk is weak
And bending (yet it doth not break) ?
      I will answer : These discover
What fainting hopes are in a lover.


Source:
Herrick, Robert. Works of Robert Herrick. vol II.
Alfred Pollard, ed.
London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1891. 6.


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