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A Song

William Browne 1591 (Tavistock, Devon) – 1645

Gentle nymphs, be not refusing,
Love's neglect is time's abusing,
They and beauty are but lent you;
Take the one and keep the other;
Love keeps fresh what age doth smother;
Beauty gone you will repent you.
  
'Twill be said when ye have proved,
Never swains more truly loved:
Oh then fly all nice behaviour!
Pity fain would (as her duty)
Be attending still on Beauty,
Let her not be out of favour.
  
From Britannia's Pastorals.
  
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

24 sec read
19

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCCB XXCDDC X
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 418
Words 78
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 1
Full analysis for A Song »

William Browne

William Browne was an English pastoral poet, born at Tavistock, Devon, and educated at Exeter College, Oxford; subsequently he entered the Inner Temple. His chief works were the long poem Britannia's Pastorals, and a contribution to The Shepheard's Pipe. Britannia's Pastorals was never finished: in his lifetime Books I & II were published successively in 1613 and 1616. The manuscript of Book III was not published until 1852. The poem is concerned with the loves and woes of Celia, Marina, etc. To him is due the epitaph for the dowager Countess of Pembroke. more…

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