William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | Faith Everlasting | Anonymous |
| DEAR, 1 if you change, Ill never choose again; | |
Sweet, if you shrink, Ill never think of love; | |
Fair, if you fail, Ill judge all beauty vain; | |
Wise, if too weak, more wits Ill never prove. | |
Dear, sweet, fair, wise! change, shrink, nor be not weak; | 5 |
And, on my faith, my faith shall never break. | |
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Earth with her flowers shall sooner heaven adorn; | |
Heaven her bright stars through earths dim globe shall move; | |
Fire heat shall lose, and frosts of flames be born; | |
Air, made to shine, as black as hell shall prove: | 10 |
Earth, heaven, fire, air, the world transformd shall view, | |
Ere I prove false to faith or strange to you. | |
| Note 1. From John Dowlands First Book of Songs or Airs, 1597. [back] | |
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