My love hath vowed he will forsake me,
And I am already sped.
Far other promise he did make me
When he had my maidenhead.
If such danger be in playing,
And sport must to earnest turne,
I will go no more a-maying.
Had I foreseen what is ensued,
And what now with pain I prove,
Unhappy then I had eschewed
This unkind event of love:
Maids foreknow their own undoing,
But fear naught till all is done,
When a man alone is wooing.
Dissembling wretch, to gaine thy pleasure,
What didst thou not vow and swear?
So didst thou rob me of the treasure,
Which so long I held so dear,
Now thou provest to me a stranger,
Such is the vile guise of men
When a woman is in danger.
That heart is nearest to misfortune
That will trust a feigned tongue,
When flattering men our loves importune,
They intend us deepest wrong,
If this shame of loves betraying
But this once I cleanely shun,
I will go no more a-maying.
(1601)
If "My Sweetest Lesbia" is a carpe diem poem, we might can call this a consequences poem. The young man urges his lover to sieze the day, etc. His sense of urgency is such that he doesn't want to wait for marriage. But what happens when they don't wait? She gave up her virginity, her "maidenheadw" for this guy. What's she get in return? In trouble. And he goes on his merry way. She has trusted a lying tongue.
a-maying. On May 1, the young people
celebrated May Day & the return of spring by going out into the fields
to gather flowers and to increase the population. She's not going
to do that any more.