Robert Herrick: The Tear Sent to Her From Staines.

THE TEAR SENT TO HER FROM STAINES.
by Robert Herrick

GLIDE, gentle streams, and bear
Along with you my tear
To that coy girl
Who smiles, yet slays
Me with delays,
And strings my tears as pearl.

See ! see, she's yonder set,
Making a carcanet
Of maiden-flowers !
There, there present
This orient,
And pendant pearl of ours.

Then say I've sent one more
Gem to enrich her store ;
And that is all
Which I can send,
Or vainly spend,
For tears no more will fall.

Nor will I seek supply
Of them, the spring's once dry ;
But I'll devise,
Among the rest,
A way that's best
How I may save mine eyes.

Yet say—should she condemn
Me to surrender them—
Then say my part
Must be to weep
Out them, to keep
A poor, yet loving heart.

Say too, she would have this ;
She shall : then my hope is,
That when I'm poor
And nothing have
To send or save,
I'm sure she'll ask no more.

Carcanet, necklace.

Source:
Herrick, Robert. Works of Robert Herrick. vol I.
Alfred Pollard, ed.
London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1891. 51-52.

to Works of Robert Herrick