If love and all the world were young

Lyricist: Walter Raleigh. Written as a riposte to the somewhat cloying Come live with me by Christopher Marlowe

Settings by composers

• John Liptrot Hatton SATB
• Samuel Webbe ATTB or TTTB

English text

1  If love and all the world were young,
And truth on ev'ry shepherd's tongue,
Thy fancied pleasures might me move,
And I might listen to thy love.

2  But time drives flocks from field to fold;
The rivers rage, and hills grow cold,
Then drooping Philomel is dumb,
And age complains of care to come.

4  Thy gowns, thy belts, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
All these to me can nothing move,
To live with thee and be thy love.

6  If youth could last, and love remain,
Had joy no date, and age no pain,
Then these delights my mind might move,
And I might listen to thy love.