No. 8 The Invitation to Youth
Take your pleasure, dance and play,
Each with other while ye may:
Youth is nimble, full of grace;
Age is lame, of tardy pace.
We the wars of love should wage,
Who are yet of tender age;
’Neath the tents of Venus dwell
All the joys that youth loves well.
Young men kindle heart’s desire;
You may liken them to fire:
Old men frighten love away
With cold frost and dry decay.
A roundelay, which might be styled the Praise of May or the exhortation to be liberal in love by The Example of the Rose, shall follow.