54
TO PRIMROSES FILLED WITH MORNING DEW.
Why doe ye weep, sweet babes? can teares
Speak griefe in you,
Who were but borne
Just as the modest morn
Teemed her refreshing dew?
Alas! you have not known that shower
That marres a flower;
Nor felt th' unkind
Breath of a blasting wind:
Nor are ye worne with yeares,
Or warpt as we,
Who think it strange to see
Such pretty flowers, like to orphans young,
To speak by teares before ye have a tongue.
Speak, whimpering younglings, and make known
The reason why
Ye droop and weep,
Is it for want of sleep,
Or childish lullaby?
Or that ye have not seen as yet
The violet?
Or broughte a kisse
From that sweetheart to this?
No, no, this sorrow shown
By your teares shed,
Wo'd have this lecture read;
That things of greatest, so of meanest worth,
Conceived with griefe are, and with tears brought forth
The cowslip bells are generally named by poets as the resort of fairies; Shakspeare's "dainty Ariel" sings—
Where the bee sucks, there suck I;
In a cowslip's bell I lie:
There I couch when owls do cry.
