Robert Greene (1560-1592)
Menaphon: Sephesta's Song to her Child
1.1Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee,
1.2When thou art old there's grief enough for thee.
1.3 Mother's wag, pretty boy,
1.4 Father's sorrow, father's joy;
1.5 When thy father first did see
1.6 Such a boy by him and me,
1.7 He was glad, I was woe,
1.8 Fortune changed made him so,
1.9 When he left his pretty boy
1.10 Last his sorrow, first his joy.
1.11Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee,
1.12When thou art old there's grief enough for thee.
1.13 Streaming tears that never stint,
1.14 Like pearl-drops from a flint,
1.15 Fell by course from his eyes,
1.16 That one another's place supplies;
1.17 Thus he griev'd in every part,
1.18 Tears of blood fell from his heart,
1.19 When he left his pretty boy,
1.20 Father's sorrow, father's joy.
1.21Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee,
1.22When thou art old there's grief enough for thee.
1.23 The wanton smil'd, father wept,
1.24 Mother cried, baby leapt;
1.25 More he crow'd, more he cried,
1.26 Nature could not sorrow hide:
1.27 He must go, he must kiss
1.28 Child and mother, baby bless,
1.29 For he left his pretty boy,
1.30 Father's sorrow, father's joy.
1.31Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee,
1.32When thou art old there's grief enough for thee.
Notes
1.1] "Menaphon" is a prose romance in which, toward the end of the book, the princess Sephestia, the exiled and then rescued heroine, sings this song to her son.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Robert Greene, Menaphon Camillas alarum to slumbering Euphues (London: T. O[rwin] for S. Clarke, 1589). STC 12272.
First publication date:
1589
RPO poem editor: N. J. Endicott
RP edition: 2RP.1.184; RPO 1997-2000.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/24
Form: couplets
Other poems by Robert Greene
