Classic Poem

When Venus saw Desire must die,
Whom high Disdain
Had justly slain,
For killing Truth with scornful eye:
The earth she leaves, and gets her to the sky;
Her golden hair she tears;
Black weeds of woe she wears;
For help unto her father doth she cry;
Who bids her stay a space,
And hope for better grace.

To save his life she hath no skill;
Whom should she pray,
What do, or say,
But weep for wanting of her will?
Meantime Desire hath ta'en his last farewell,
And in a meadow fair,
To which the nymphs repair,
His breathless corpse is laid with worms to dwell:
So glory doth decay,
When death takes life away.

When morning star had chased the night,
The Queen of Love
Looked from above,
To see the grave of her delight:
And as with heedful eye she viewed the place,
She spied a flower unknown,
That on his grave was grown,
Instead of learned verse his tomb to grace.
If you the name require,
Heart's-ease from dead Desire.