As ye came from the holy land <br />Of Walsinghame, <br />Met you not with my true love <br />By the way as you came? <br /> <br />How should I know your true love, <br />That have met many a one <br />As I came from the holy land, <br />That have come, that have gone? <br /> <br />She is neither white nor brown, <br />But as the heavens fair; <br />There is none hath her form divine <br />In the earth or the air. <br /> <br />Such a one did I meet, good sir, <br />Such an angelic face, <br />Who like a nymph, like a queen, did appear <br />In her gait, in her grace. <br /> <br />She hath left me here alone <br />All alone, as unknown, <br />Who sometime did me lead with herself, <br />And me loved as her own. <br /> <br />What's the cause that she leaves you alone <br />And a new way doth take, <br />That sometime did love you as her own, <br />And her joy did you make? <br /> <br />I have loved her all my youth, <br />But now am old, as you see: <br />Love likes not the falling fruit, <br />Nor the withered tree. <br /> <br />Know that Love is a careless child, <br />And forgets promise past: <br />He is blind, he is deaf when he list, <br />And in faith never fast. <br /> <br />His desire is a dureless content, <br />And a trustless joy; <br />He is won with a world of despair, <br />And is lost with a toy. <br /> <br />Of womenkind such indeed is the love, <br />Or the word love abused, <br />Under which many childish desires <br />And conceits are excused. <br /> <br />But true love is a durable fire, <br />In the mind ever burning, <br />Never sick, never dead, never cold, <br />From itself never turning.<br /><br />Anonymous Olde English<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/as-ye-came-from-the-holy-land-2/
