Serenade

Had we the earth and all God's days,
Your teasing woman I would praise.
We'd speak of love and stroll, not yearn
For wasted days and their return.
You at Eden's garden, blossoms all would take,
And I from at the bottom of Megiddo'd reply and wake
To give you love you answered by giving me heartache.
I'd love you though from Caesar's day
As when the sun should fade away,
And my heart's weight in time would rise
As great as stars in sum and size.
Ten decades I should spend and burn
To see eyes shine and your face turn.
Twenty more to your bosom's slope,
Three thousand to the rest, I hope.
Eternity for every pole
And at the last to see your soul
For such love woman do you entice
That I'd not set a lesser price.

But closer comes our certain end,
Impatient death should soon come near,
And then beyond us past the bend
At unknown countries shall we peer.
You shall be gone
And my song of you forgotten.
Worms shall claim your maidenhead,
Death your honor shall unseat,
And with its passing dear, so should my heat.
Lovers embrace in heat and bed,
But I do not think they do, the dead.

Now therefore while you are bright
With summer warmth and youthful light,
And while you live with life aglow,
While at high crests your spirits flow,
Let us play while yet we can,
Like things in lust let us now span
In lust the space from here to grave
And so not be time's mastered slave.
We'll take the sum of who we are,
Distill our hearts into one hour,
And make all joy and merry sound
Before we rest beneath the ground.
While we cannot help but soon grow old,
Let us now be young by being bold.

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[With apologies to Andrew Marvell and his coy mistress. This was an entirely academic exercise.]