Robert Herrick (1591-1674). The Bracelet: To Julia. William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. 1907. The Book of Elizabethan Verse

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

The Bracelet: To Julia

By Robert Herrick (1591–1674)


WHY I tie about thy wrist,
Julia, this my silken twist;
For what other reason is’t
But to show thee how, in part,
Thou my pretty captive art?	5
But thy bond-slave is my heart:
’Tis but silk that bindeth thee,
Knap the thread and thou art free;
But ’tis otherwise with me:
—I am bound and fast bound, so	10
That from thee I cannot go;
If I could I would not so.