To My Young Lady Lucy Sidney.[1]

1 Why came I so untimely forth Into a world which, wanting thee, Could entertain us with no worth Or shadow of felicity? That time should me so far remove From that which I was born to love!

2 Yet, fairest blossom! do not slight That age which you may know so soon; The rosy morn resigns her light And milder glory to the noon; And then what wonders shall you do, Whose dawning beauty warms us so?

3 Hope waits upon the flow'ry prime; And summer, though it be less gay, Yet is not look'd on as a time Of declination or decay; For with a full hand that does bring All that was promised by the spring.

'Lady Lucy Sidney': the younger sister of Lady Dorothea; afterwards married to Sir John Pelham.