Songs of Ariel

William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

From “The Tempest,” Act I. Sc. 2.

I.

COME unto these yellow sands,

And then take hands;

Court’sied when you have, and kissed.

(The wild waves whist!)

Foot it featly here and there;

And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear.

Hark, hark!

Burthen [dispersedly]—Bow-wow.

The watch-dogs bark—

Burthen [dispersedly]—Bow-wow.

Hark, hark! I hear

The strain of strutting chanticleer

Cry Cock-a diddle-dow.

II.

Full fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;

Those are pearls that were his eyes;

Nothing of him that doth fade

But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange.

Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:

Burthen.—Ding-dong!

Hark! now I hear them—ding, dong, bell!

II.
Act V. Sc. 1.

Where the bee sucks, there suck I:

In a cowslip’s bell I lie;

There I couch when owls do cry;

On the bat’s back I do fly

After summer merrily.

Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.