| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Clear Anker, on Whose Silver-sanded Shore | | By Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | | CLEAR Anker, on whose silver-sanded shore | |
| My soul-shrined saint, my fair Idea, lies; | |
| O blessèd brook, whose milk-white swans adore | |
| Thy crystal stream, refinèd by her eyes! | |
| There sweet myrrh-breathing Zephyr in the spring | 5 |
| Gently distils his nectar-dropping showers, | |
| Where nightingales in Arden sit and sing | |
| Amongst the dainty dew-impearlèd flowers; | |
| Say thus, fair brook, when thou shalt see thy queen,— | |
| “Lo, here thy shepherd spent his wandering years, | 10 |
| And in these shades, dear nymph, he oft hath been, | |
| And here to thee he sacrificed his tears.” | |
| Fair Arden, thou my Tempe art alone, | |
| And thou, sweet Anker, art my Helicon. | | | | |
|
|
