William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
LIVE WITH ME AND BE MY LOVE

LIVE with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
And all the craggy mountains yields.

There will we sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, by whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There will I make thee a bed of roses,
With a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider’d all with leaves of myrtle.

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Then live with me and be my love.

LOVE’S ANSWER
If that the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd’s tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move,
To live with thee and be thy love.

Notes:
- The poem is one of Shakespeare's "Sonnets to
- Sundry Notes of Music".
- The 1914 Oxford edition of the Complete Works of
- William Shakespeare can be found at Bartleby.com.