The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry Before 1600

by rushing into battle, like the “fooles” described in the
second stanza.
The fi nal COUPLET of each stanza forms a REFRAIN of
the light/night image, which echoes the sense of rising
and falling in the original image in the fi rst stanza. This
and the oxymoronic “happie tombe” contribute to the
poignancy of the poem’s bittersweet conclusion, where

the poet asks Lesbia to “crowne with love my ever-dur-

ing night.”

FURTHER READING

Lindley, David. Thomas Campion. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986.

Susan L. Anderson

286 “MY SWEETEST LESBIA”