The Primrose, Being at Montgomery Castle, Upon the Hill, on Which It Is Situate
30 lines✦
PON this Primrose hill,Where, if heaven would distilA shower of rain, each several drop might goTo his own primrose, and grow manna so;And where their form, and their infinityMake a terrestrial galaxy,As the small stars do in the sky;I walk to find a true love; and I seeThat 'tis not a mere woman, that is she,But must or more or less than woman be. Yet know I not, which flowerI wish; a six, or four;For should my true-love less than woman be,She were scarce anything; and then, should sheBe more than woman, she would get aboveAll thought of sex, and think to moveMy heart to study her, and not to love.Both these were monsters; since there must resideFalsehood in woman, I could more abide,She were by art, than nature falsified. Live, primrose, then, and thriveWith thy true number five;And, woman, whom this flower doth represent,With this mysterious number be content;Ten is the farthest number; if half tenBelongs to each woman, thenEach woman may take half us men;Or—if this will not serve their turn—since allNumbers are odd, or even, and they fallFirst into five, women may take us all.
✦