Richard Lovelace. Orpheus to Woods. Song.

Richard Lovelace.

Niccolo dell' Abbate (1509-1571)
Orpheus and Eurydice, detail.

ORPHEUS to WOODS.
Song.
Set by Mr. Curtes.

Heark ! Oh heark ! you guilty Trees,
In whose gloomy Galleries
Was the cruell'st murder done,
That e're yet eclipst the Sunne ;
Be then henceforth in your twigges
Blasted e're you sprout to sprigges ;
Feele no season of the yeere,
But what shaves off all your haire,
Nor carve any from your wombes
Ought but Coffins, and their Tombes.

[The Orpheus myth]

Source:
Lovelace, Richard. The Poems of Richard Lovelace.
London: Unit Library, Ltd., 1904. 35.

to Works of Richard Lovelace