Lyric Poem · Love

Song To Celia - I

by Ben Jonson

Reading room

1Come, my Celia, let us prove

2While we may the sports of love;

3Time will not be ours forever,

4He at length our good will sever.

5Spend not then his gifts in vain;

6Suns that set may rise again,

7But if once we lose this light,

8'Tis with us perpetual night.

9Why should we defer our joys?

10Fame and rumour are but toys.

11Cannot we delude the eyes

12Of a few poor household spies?

13Or his easier ears beguile,

14So removed by our wile?

15'Tis no sin love's fruits to steal;

16But the sweet theft to reveal,

17To be taken, to be seen,

18These have crimes accounted been.

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“Song To Celia - I” by Ben Jonson — quilloak.com/poems/song-to-celia-i

Quick facts

Poem: Song To Celia - I
Poet: Ben Jonson
Length: 18 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Love

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 18 lines · 4 stanzas of 4–6 lines
Line length: Mostly 7-syllable lines.

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Text, source & rights

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Author record: Ben Jonson1572–1637
Source record: PoetryDBSong To Celia - I by ben-jonson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 ba17eea381e3b4fa…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Love

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