William Drummond born on this date in 1585.
Daily Readings:
- Drummond’s Invocation
- “I know that All Beneath the Moon decays”
- For the Baptist
- To His Lute
- William Browne’s The Siren’s Song*
- A Welcome
- My Choice
*There are days when internet searches are even stupider than they were yesterday.
William Drummond of Hawthornden, author of The History of Scotland: From the year 1423 until the year 1542
To His Lute
My lute, be as thou wert when thou didst grow With thy green mother in some shady grove, When immelodious winds but made thee move, And birds their ramage did on thee bestow. Since that dear Voice which did thy sounds approve, Which wont in such harmonious strains to flow, Is reft from Earth to tune those spheres above, What art thou but a harbinger of woe? Thy pleasing notes be pleasing notes no more, But orphans' wailings to the fainting ear; Each stroke a sigh, each sound draws forth a tear; For which be silent as in woods before: Or if that any hand to touch thee deign, Like widowed turtle, still her loss complain.
