The Lark Now Leaves His Watery Nest

Sir William Davenant, 1606-1668

The lark now leaves his watery nest 

And climbing, shakes his dewy wings;

He takes this window for the east, 

And to implore your light, he sings, 

Awake, awake, the morn will never rise,

Tis she can dress her beauty at your eyes. 

The merchant bows unto the seaman’s star,

The ploughman from the sun his season takes;

But still the lover wonders what they are,

Who look for day before his mistress wakes.

Awake, awake, break through your veils of lawn,

Then draw your curtains, and begin the dawn. 

from the anthology: Davenant (also called D'Avenant) was said to be Shakespeare's godson, and rumors persisted that he was Shakespeare’s natural son as well. He was a busy and varied man of letters, producing comedies, tragedies, and the heroic poem Gondibert, which is still readable. He was made poet laureate and knighted by Charles I. A loyal Cavalier [i.e., a Royalist in the English Civil War], he was imprisoned in the Tower [of London] in the early 1650s, saved supposedly by Milton. Davenant returned the favor during the Restoration, when Milton was jailed.