| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | The Solitary Shepherd’s Song | | By Thomas Lodge (1558–1625) |
| | | O SHADY vales, O fair enrichèd meads, | |
| O sacred woods, sweet fields, and rising mountains; | |
| O painted flowers, green herbs, where Flora treads, | |
| Refreshed by wanton winds and wat’ry fountains. | |
| O all you wingèd choristers of wood | 5 |
| That perched aloft, your former pains report, | |
| And straight again recount with pleasant mood | |
| Your pleasant joys in sweet and seemly sort. | |
| O all you creatures, whosoever thrive | |
| On mother earth, in seas, by air, or fire, | 10 |
| More blest are you than I here under sun: | |
| Love dies in me, whenas he doth revive | |
| In you; I perish under beauty’s ire, | |
| Where after storms, winds, frosts, your life is won. | | | | |
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