To Meadows

To Meadows

Robert Herrick
1591-1674

Ye have been fresh and green,

            Ye have been filled with flowers;
And ye the walks have been
            Where maids have spent their hours.

 You have beheld how they

With wicker arks did come,

To kiss and bear away

The richer cowslips home.

 Ye’ve heard them sweetly sing,

And seen them in a round;

Each virgin, like a spring,

With honeysuckles crowned.

But now, we see none here

Whose silvery feet did tread,

And with disheveled hair

Adorned this smoother mead.

Like unthrifts, having spent

Your stock, and needy grown,

Ye’re left here to lament

Your poor estates, alone.