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Home  »  The Book of Elizabethan Verse  »  Henry Constable (1562–1613)

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

Damelus’ Song of His Diaphenia

Henry Constable (1562–1613)

DIAPHENIA like the daffadowndilly,

White as the sun, fair as the lily,

Heigh ho, how I do love thee!

I do love thee as my lambs

Are belovèd of their dams—

How blest were I if thou wouldst prove me!

Diaphenia like the spreading roses,

That in thy sweets all sweets encloses,

Fair sweet, how I do love thee!

I do love thee as each flower

Love’s the sun’s life-giving power,

For death, thy breath to life might move me.

Diaphenia, like to all things blessèd

When all thy praises are expressèd,

Dear joy, how I do love thee!

As the birds do love the spring,

Or the bees their careful king:

Then in requite, sweet virgin, love me!