Now Winter Nights Enlarge

                                 by Thomas Campion (1617)

 

 

             Now winter nights enlarge
            The number of their hours,
            And clouds their storms discharge
            Upon the airy towers.
            Let now the chimneys blaze,
            And cups o’erflow with wine;
            Let well-tuned words amaze
            With harmony divine.
            Now yellow waxen lights
            Shall wait on honey love,
            While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights
            Sleep’s leaden spells remove.

            This time doth well dispense
            With lovers’ long discourse;
            Much speech hath some defence,
            Though beauty no remorse.
            All do not all things well;
            Some measures comely tread,
            Some knotted riddles tell,
            Some poems smoothly read.
            The summer hath his joys
            And winter his delights;
            Though love and all his pleasures are but toys,

            They shorten tedious nights.