Happy ye leaves when as those lily hands,
Which hold my life in their dead-doing might,
Shall handle you and hold in love’s soft bands,
Like captives trembling at the victor’s sight.
And happy lines, on which with starry light,
Those lamping eyes will deign sometimes to look
And read the sorrows of my dying sprite,
Written with tears in heart’s close-bleeding book.
And happy rhymes bath’d in the sacred brook,
Of Helicon whence she derived is,
When ye behold that Angel’s blessed look,
My soul’s long-lacked food, my heaven’s bliss.
Leaves, lines, and rhymes, seek her to please alone,
Whom if ye please, I care for other none.