THE INVITATION TO YOUTH.
John Addington Symonds translation
No. 8.
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.