April 1 is the start of National Poetry Month.  Since 1996, this literary celebration honors the significance of poetry in world culture, according to poets.org.  Each school day this month, the King Street Chronicle will publish one poem to recognize this month-long commemoration of poetry.

The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd
By Sir Walter Raleigh

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every Shepherd’s tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move,
To live with thee, and be thy love.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When Rivers rage and Rocks grow cold,
And Philomel becometh dumb,
The rest complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields,
To wayward winter reckoning yields,
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy’s spring, but sorrow’s fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of Roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten:
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and Ivy buds,
The Coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last, and love still breed,
Had joys no date, nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee, and be thy love.

Contributed by Ms. Matilde Larson, Upper School English and Journalism Teacher and Co-Director of SophieConnect

Featured Image by Lé-Anne Johnson ’21