SWEET WILLIAM. BALLAD I. Christopher Smart Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T42626 K041581.000 Smart, Christopher, 1722-1771. Poems on several occasions: By Christopher Smart, A. M. Fellow of Pembroke-Hall, Cambridge. London printed for the author, by W. Strahan; and sold by J. Newbery, at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, MDCCLII. 1752 pp. []-198. [16],230p.,plates; 4⁰.

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SWEET WILLIAM . BALLAD I. I. BY a prattling stream , on a Midsummer's eve , Where the woodbine and jess'mine their boughs interweave , Fair Flora , I cry'd , to my arbour repair , For I must have a chaplet for sweet William's hair . II . She brought me the vi'let that grows on the hill , The vale dwelling lilly , and gilded jonquill : But such languid odours how cou'd I approve , Just warm from the lips of the lad that I love . III . She brought me , his faith and his truth to display , The undying myrtle , and ever-green bay : But why these to me , who've his constancy known ? And Billy has laurels enough of his own . IV . The next was a gift that I could not contemn , For she brought me two roses that grew on a stem : Of the dear nuptial tie they stood emblems confest , So I kiss'd 'em , and press'd 'em quite close to my breast . V. She brought me a sun-flow'r — This , fair one's , your due ; For it once was a maiden , and love-sick like you : Oh ! give it me quick , to my shepherd I'll run , As true to his flame , as this flow'r to the sun .