Lightly come or lightly go:
     Though thy heart presage thee woe,
     Vales and many a wasted sun,
     Oread let thy laughter run,
     Till the irreverent mountain air
     Ripple all thy flying hair.

     Lightly, lightly—ever so:
     Clouds that wrap the vales below
     At the hour of evenstar
     Lowliest attendants are;
     Love and laughter song-confessed
     When the heart is heaviest.

     Thou leanest to the shell of night,
     Dear lady, a divining ear.
     In that soft choiring of delight
     What sound hath made thy heart to fear?
     Seemed it of rivers rushing forth
     From the grey deserts of the north?

     That mood of thine
     Is his, if thou but scan it well,
     Who a mad tale bequeaths to us
     At ghosting hour conjurable—
     And all for some strange name he read
                In Purchas or in Holinshed.

     Though I thy Mithridates were,
     Framed to defy the poison-dart,
     Yet must thou fold me unaware
     To know the rapture of thy heart,
     And I but render and confess
     The malice of thy tenderness.

     For elegant and antique phrase,
     Dearest, my lips wax all too wise;
     Nor have I known a love whose praise
     Our piping poets solemnize,
     Neither a love where may not be
     Ever so little falsity.

     Gentle lady, do not sing
     Sad songs about the end of love;
     Lay aside sadness and sing
     How love that passes is enough.

     Sing about the long deep sleep
     Of lovers that are dead, and how
     In the grave all love shall sleep:
     Love is aweary now.

     Dear heart, why will you use me so?
     Dear eyes that gently me upbraid,
     Still are you beautiful—but O,
     How is your beauty raimented!

     Through the clear mirror of your eyes,
     Through the soft sigh of kiss to kiss,
     Desolate winds assail with cries
     The shadowy garden where love is.

     And soon shall love dissolved be
     When over us the wild winds blow—
     But you, dear love, too dear to me,
     Alas! why will you use me so?