To Celia
Ben Jonson · 1616
Public domain
From The Golden Treasury, selected by Francis Turner Palgrave. Ben Jonson. The text is free of copyright in the United States. This copy is the poem, without the Project Gutenberg header.
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup
And I'll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine;
But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honouring thee
As giving it a hope that there
It could not wither'd be;
But thou thereon didst only breathe
And sent'st it back to me;
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself but thee!