Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO CASSANDRA, by PIERRE DE RONSARD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO CASSANDRA, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O mayde more tender yet
Last Line: In love's sweet ecstasies.
Subject(s): Kisses; Love


O MAYDE more tender yet
Than shy sweet buds that wake
On rose-trees dewy wet
When first the daye doth break,
That from the thorny speare
Half green, half red doe peere;

Faster than ivy clyngs
With supple stems entwyn'd
Round the stout oak in ryngs
A hundred-fold that bynd
With their fond arms and slym
The whole wide girth of hym,

Round me, O faire and fond,
Let thyne arms make a ryng;
Link fast the gentle bond
Of thy sweet tetheryng;
Let kysses givn and ta'en
For evermore remayne.

Not tyme nor envious dread
Of other love more meet
Shall fynd me sunderéd
From thy sweet lips, my sweet.
Thus kissynge will we dwell
Till lyfe bid us farewell.

The same moon, the same daye,
And the same hour we two
Shall wander far awaye,
Death's pallid house to view,
And those faire fields out-spread
For lovers haply wed.

Love's self amid the flow'rs
Of everlastynge sprynge
Shall watch these loves of ours,
Under the green boughs clynge;
And we shall knowe the good
Of gentle loverhood.

In fields of sedge and thyme,
Along the level grounde,
With many a mazy chyme
Accordant airs shall sounde;
While, featly to these tunes
A dancer swayes and swoones.

There heaven's unclouded space
Shynes ever with clear light;
No serpent thro' the maze
Spits venom in its spite;
For ever in those trees
Birds synge their melodies;

Soft wyndes for ever goe
With gentle sound a-styr,
For ever laurels throwe
Their coolynge shadowe there;
There lovely flowers do swaye
That never fade awaye.

Somewhere in the wyde space
This happye garden covers
We two shall fynde our place
Amid the throngynge lovers,
Unweariéd as these
In love's sweet ecstasies.





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