Thomas Campion (1567-1620). Basia. William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. 1907. The Book of Elizabethan Verse

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

Basia

By Thomas Campion (1567–1620)


TURN 1 back, you wanton flyer,
And answer my desire
With mutual greeting.
Yet bend a little nearer,—
True beauty still shines clearer	5
In closer meeting.
Hearts with hearts delighted
Should strive to be united,
Each other’s arms with arms enchaining:
Hearts with a thought,	10
Rosy lips with a kiss still entertaining.

What harvest half so sweet is
As still to reap the kisses
Grown ripe in sowing?
And straight to be receiver	15
Of that which thou art giver,
Rich in bestowing?
There’s no strict observing
Of times’ or seasons’ swerving, 2
There is ever one fresh spring abiding;	20
Then what we sow
With our lips let’s reap, love’s gains dividing.

Note 1. From Campion and Rosseter’s A Book of Airs, 1601. [back]

Note 2. Times’ or seasons’ swerving: Old ed. changing. Swerving is Mr. Bullen’s emendation. In the original, and in Mr. Bullen’s edition of Campion (1889 and 1891), lines 10–11 read:

	Then what we sow with our lips,
	Let us reap, love’s gains dividing.

I have preferred, however, to follow Mr. Quiller-Couch’s arrangement. (Golden Pomp, p. 91.) [back]

CONTENTS · GLOSSARY · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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