--AND, cruel maid, because I see <br />You scornful of my love, and me, <br />I'll trouble you no more, but go <br />My way, where you shall never know <br />What is become of me; there I <br />Will find me out a path to die, <br />Or learn some way how to forget <br />You and your name for ever;--yet <br />Ere I go hence, know this from me, <br />What will in time your fortune be; <br />This to your coyness I will tell; <br />And having spoke it once, Farewell. <br />--The lily will not long endure, <br />Nor the snow continue pure; <br />The rose, the violet, one day <br />See both these lady-flowers decay; <br />And you must fade as well as they. <br />And it may chance that love may turn, <br />And, like to mine, make your heart burn <br />And weep to see't; yet this thing do, <br />That my last vow commends to you; <br />When you shall see that I am dead, <br />For pity let a tear be shed; <br />And, with your mantle o'er me cast, <br />Give my cold lips a kiss at last; <br />If twice you kiss, you need not fear <br />That I shall stir or live more here. <br />Next hollow out a tomb to cover <br />Me, me, the most despised lover; <br />And write thereon, THIS, READER, KNOW; <br />LOVE KILL'D THIS MAN. No more, but so.<br /><br />Robert Herrick<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-cruel-maid/
