| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | The Stream | | By Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) |
| | | I WALK’D along a stream, for pureness rare, | |
| Brighter than sunshine; for it did acquaint | |
| The dullest sight with all glorious prey | |
| That in the pebble-pavèd channel lay. | |
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| No molten crystal, but a richer mine, | 5 |
| Even Nature’s rarest alchymy ran there,— | |
| Diamonds resolv’d, and substance more divine, | |
| Through whose bright-gliding current might appear | |
| A thousand naked nymphs, whose ivory shine, | |
| Enamelling the banks, made them more dear | 10 |
| Than ever was that glorious palace gate | |
| Where the day-shining Sun in triumph sate. | |
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| Upon this brim the eglantine and rose, | |
| The tamarisk, olive, and the almond tree, | |
| As kind companions, in one union grows, | 15 |
| Folding their twining arms, as oft we see | |
| Turtle-taught lovers either other close, | |
| Lending to dulness feeling sympathy; | |
| And as a costly valance o’er a bed, | |
| So did their garland-tops the brook o’erspread. | 20 |
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| Their leaves, that differ’d both in shape and show, | |
| Though all were green, yet difference such in green, | |
| Like to the checker’d bent of Iris’ bow, | |
| Prided the running main, as it had been…. | | | | |
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