William Shakespeare. 1564–1616

Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music, V.

“Live with me, and be my love”


LIVE with me, and be my love,  
And we will all the pleasures prove  
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,  
And all the craggy mountains yields.  
  
There will we sit upon the rocks,    5
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,  
By shallow rivers, by whose falls  
Melodious birds sing madrigals.  
  
There will I make thee a bed of roses,  
With a thousand fragrant posies,   10
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle  
Embroider’d all with leaves of myrtle.  
  
A belt of straw and ivy buds,  
With coral clasps and amber studs;  
And if these pleasures may thee move,   15
Then live with me and be my love.  
  
LOVE’S ANSWER

If that the world and love were young,
 
And truth in every shepherd’s tongue,  
These pretty pleasures might me move,  
To live with thee and be thy love.   20