by Thomas Carew (1595? - 1639?) and possibly by Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674)
The Primrose
Language: English
Ask me why I send you here This sweet Infanta of the year? Ask me why I send to you This Primrose, thus be-pearled with dew? I will whisper to your ears: The sweets of love are mix'd with tears. Ask me why this flow'r does show So yellow-green, and sickly too? Ask me why the stalk is weak And bending, yet it doth not break? I will answer: -- these discover What doubts and fears are in a lover.
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Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
Confirmed with The Book of Elizabethan Verse, ed, by William Stanley Braithwaite, 1907. See also The Primrose by Robert Burns, which appears to be inspired by this poem.
Authorship:
- by Thomas Carew (1595? - 1639?) [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
- possibly by Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674) [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941), "The Primrose", 1902 [ voice and piano ], from Two Songs [1902], no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
Set in a modified version by Fritz Bennicke Hart.
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 79