Song: Phoebus Arise

Song: Phoebus Arise

Original Text
William Drummond, Poems (1616). Facs. edn. (Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1969). PR 2260 A1 1616A Robarts Library
1Phœbus, arise,
2And paint the sable skies
3With azure, white, and red;
5That she thy career may with roses spread;
6The nightingales thy coming each where sing;
7Make an eternal spring;
8Give life to this dark world which lieth dead.
9Spread forth thy golden hair
10In larger locks than thou wast wont before,
12With diadem of pearl thy temples fair.
13Chase hence the ugly night,
14Which serves but to make dear thy glorious light.
15This is that happy morn,
16That day, long wished day
17Of all my life so dark,
18(If cruel stars have not my ruin sworn,
19And fates not hope betray)
20Which, only white, deserves
21A diamond forever should it mark;
22This is the morn should bring unto this grove
23My love, to hear and recompense my love.
24Fair king, who all preserves,
25But show thy blushing beams,
27Shalt see than those which by Peneus' streams
28Did once thy heart surprise;
29Nay, suns, which shine as clear
31Now Flora, deck thyself in fairest guise;
32If that ye, winds, would hear
34Your stormy chiding stay;
35Let Zephyr only breathe
36And with her tresses play,
37Kissing sometimes these purple ports of death.
38The winds all silent are,
39And Phœbus in his chair,
40Ensaffroning sea and air,
41Makes vanish every star;
43Beyond the hills to shun his flaming wheels;
44The fields with flow'rs are deck'd in every hue,
45The clouds bespangle with bright gold their blue;
46Here is the pleasant place,
47And ev'ry thing save her, who all should grace.

Notes

4] Mennon's mother: Aurora, wife of Tithonus. Back to Line
11] decore: decorate. Back to Line
26] The reference is to Daphne whom Apollo (Phoebus) first met by the stream of the river-god Peneus, her father. Back to Line
30] Two suns were said to have been seen in the heavens at Rome during the Second Punic War. Back to Line
33] Amphion's lyre: a lyre given to Amphion by Hermes, which he played with such skill when he was fortifying Thebes that the stones formed the wall of their own accord. Back to Line
42] Cf. Romeo and Juliet, II.iii.3-4. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1616
RPO poem Editors
N. J. Endicott
RPO Edition
2RP.1.297; RPO 1996-2000.