C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

The Mower’s Song

By Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)

MY mind was once the true survey

Of all these meadows fresh and gay;

And in the greenness of the grass

Did see its hopes as in a glass:

When Juliana came, and she,

What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me.

But these, while I with sorrow pine,

Grew more luxuriant still and fine;

That not one blade of grass you spied

But had a flower on either side:

When Juliana came, and she,

What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me.

Unthankful meadows, could you so

A fellowship so true forego,

And in your gaudy May-games meet,

While I lay trodden under feet?

When Juliana came, and she,

What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me.

But what you in compassion ought,

Shall now by my revenge be wrought;

And flowers, and grass, and I, and all,

Will in one common ruin fall:

For Juliana comes, and she,

What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me.

And thus ye meadows, which have been

Companions of my thoughts more green,

Shall now the heraldry become

With which I shall adorn my tomb:

For Juliana comes, and she,

What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me.

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