Song

(Based on "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by Christopher Marlowe. Another related poem is "The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd" by Sir Walter Raleigh - see "Poems : Classic(M-R)" on this site)
by Cecil Day-Lewis CBE (27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972) was a British poet, the British Poet Laureate from 1967 to 1972, and, under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake, a mystery writer.

Come, live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
Of peace and plenty, bed and board,
That chance employment may afford.

I'll handle dainties on the docks
And thou shalt read of summer frocks:
At evening by the sour canals
We'll hope to hear some madrigals.

Care on thy maiden brow shall put
A wreath of wrinkles, and thy foot
Be shod with pain: not silken dress
But toil shall tire thy loveliness.

Hunger shall make thy modest zone
And cheat fond death of all but bone-
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.


Epitaph
1904-1972

Shall I be gone long?
For ever and a day
To whom there belong?
Ask the stone to say.
Ask my song.