by Homer
First lullaby my youthful years,
It is now time to go to bed: 10
For crookèd age and hoary hairs
Have won the haven within my head.
With lullaby, then, youth be still;
With lullaby content thy will;
Since courage quails and comes behind, 15
Go sleep, and so beguile thy mind!
Next lullaby my gazing eyes,
Which wonted were to glance apace;
For every glass may now suffice
To show the furrows in thy face. 20
With lullaby then wink awhile;
With lullaby your looks beguile;
Let no fair face, nor beauty bright,
Entice you eft with vain delight.
And lullaby my wanton will; 25
Let reason’s rule now reign thy thought;
Since all too late I find by skill
How dear I have thy fancies bought;
With lullaby now take thine case,
With lullaby thy doubts appease; 30
For trust to this, if thou be still,
My body shall obey thy will.
Thus lullaby my youth, mine eyes,
My will, my ware, and all that was:
I can no more delays devise; 35
But welcome pain, let pleasure pass.
With lullaby now take your leave;
With lullaby your dreams deceive;
And when you rise with waking eye,
Remember then this lullaby. 40
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Nicholas Breton
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Phillida and Coridon
Nicholas Breton (1545–1626)
IN the merry month of May,
In a morn by break of day,
Forth I walk’d by the wood-side
When as May was in his pride:
There I spièd all alone 5
Phillida and Coridon.
Much ado there was, God wot!
He would love and she would not.
She said, Never man was true;
He said, None was false to you. 10
He said, He had loved her long;
She said, Love should have no wrong.
Coridon would kiss her then;
She said, Maids must kiss no men
Till they did for good and all; 15
Then she made the shepherd call
All the heavens to witness truth
Never loved a truer youth.
Thus with many a pretty oath,
Yea and nay, and faith and troth, 20
Such as silly shepherds use
When they will not Love abuse,
Love, which had been long deluded,
Was with kisses sweet concluded;
And Phillida, with garlands gay, 25
Was made the Lady of the May.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Anthony Munday
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Beauty Bathing
Anthony Munday (1553–1663)
BEAUTY sat bathing by a spring
Where fairest shades did hide her;
The winds blew calm, the birds did sing,
The cool streams ran beside her.
My wanton thoughts enticed mine eye 5
To see what was forbidden:
But better memory said, fie!
So vain desire was chidden: —
Hey nonny nonny O!
Hey nonny nonny! 10
Into a slumber then I fell,
When fond imagination
Seeméd to see, but could not tell
Her feature or her fashion.
But, ev’n as babes in dreams do smile, 15
And sometimes fall a-weeping,
So I awaked, as wise this while
As when I fell a-sleeping: —
Hey nonny nonny O!
Hey nonny nonny! 20
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Richard Edwardes
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Amantium Irae
Richard Edwardes (1523–1566)
IN going to my naked bed as one that would have slept,
I heard a wife sing to her child, that long before had wept;
She sighèd sore and sang full sweet, to bring the babe to rest,
That would not cease but crièd still, in sucking at her breast.
She was full weary of her watch, and grievèd with her child, 5
She rockèd it and rated it, till that on her it smiled.
Then did she say, Now have I found this proverb true to prove,
The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love.
Then took I paper, pen, and ink, this proverb for to write,
In register for to remain of such a worthy wight: 10
As she proceeded thus in song unto her little brat,
Much matter utter’d she of weight, in place whereas she sat:
And provèd plain there was no beast, nor creature bearing life,
Could well be known to live in love without discord and strife:
Then kissèd she her little babe, and sware by God above, 15
The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love.
She said that neither king nor prince nor lord could live aright,
Until their puissance they did prove, their manhood and their might.
When manhood shall be matched so that fear can take no place,
Then weary works make warriors each other to embrace, 20
And left their force that failèd them, which did consume the rout,
That might before have lived their time, their strength and nature out:
Then did she sing as one that thought no man could her reprove,
The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love.
She said she saw no fish nor fowl, nor beast within her haunt, 25
That met a stranger in their kind, but could give it a taunt:
Since flesh might not endure, but rest must wrath succeed,
And force the fight to fall to play in pasture where they feed,
So noble nature can well end the work she hath begun,
And bridle well that will not cease her tragedy in some: 30
Thus in song she oft rehearsed, as did her well behove.
The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love.
I marvel much pardy (quoth she) for to behold the rout,
To see man, woman, boy and beast, to toss the world about:
Some kneel, some crouch, some beck, some check, and some can smoothly smile 35
And some embrace others in arm, and there think many a wile,
Some stand aloof at cap and knee, some humble and some stout,
Yet are they never friends in deed until they once fall out:
Thus ended she her song and said, before she did remove,
The falling out of faithful friends renewing is of love. 40
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sir Walter Raleigh
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
His Pilgrimage
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618)
GIVE me my scallop-shell of quiet,
My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
My bottle of salvation,
My gown of glory, hope’s true gage; 5
And thus I’ll take my pilgrimage.
Blood must be my body’s balmer;
No other balm will there be given;
W
hilst my soul, like quiet palmer,
Travelleth towards the land of heaven; 10
Over the silver mountains,
Where spring the nectar fountains:
There will I kiss
The bowls of bliss;
And drink mine everlasting fill 15
Upon every milken hill.
My soul will be a-dry before;
But, after, it will thirst no more.
Then by that happy blissful day,
More peaceful pilgrims I shall see, 20
That have cast off their rags of clay,
And walk apparelled fresh like me.
I’ll take them first
To quench their thirst
And taste of nectar suckets, 25
At those clear wells
Where sweetness dwells,
Drawn up by saints in crystal buckets.
And when our bottles and all we
Are filled with immortality, 30
Then the blessed paths we’ll travel,
Strowed with rubies thick as gravel;
Ceilings of diamonds, sapphire floors,
High walls of coral and pearly bowers.
From thence to heaven’s bribeless hall, 35
Where no corrupted voices brawl;
No conscience molten into gold,
No forged accuser bought or sold,
No cause deferred, no vain-spent journey,
For there Christ is the king’s Attorney, 40
Who pleads for all without degrees,
And He hath angels, but no fees.
And when the grand twelve-million jury
Of our sins, with direful fury,
Against our souls black verdicts give, 45
Christ pleads His death, and then we live.
Be Thou my speaker, taintless pleader,
Unblotted lawyer, true proceeder!
Thou givest salvation even for alms;
Not with a bribed lawyer’s palms. 50
And this is mine eternal plea
To Him that made heaven, earth, and sea,
That, since my flesh must die so soon,
And want a head to dine at noon,
Just at the stroke, when my veins start and spread, 55
Set on my soul an everlasting head!
Then am I ready, like a palmer fit,
To tread those blest paths which before I writ.
Of death and judgment, heaven and hell,
Who oft doth think, must needs die well. 60
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
The Lie
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618)
GO, Soul, the body’s guest,
Upon a thankless arrant:
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant:
Go, since I needs must die, 5
And give the world the lie.
Say to the court, it glows
And shines like rotten wood;
Say to the church, it shows
What’s good, and doth no good: 10
If church and court reply,
Then give them both the lie.
Tell potentates, they live
Acting by others’ action;
Not loved unless they give, 15
Not strong, but by a faction:
If potentates reply,
Give potentates the lie.
Tell men of high condition,
That manage the estate, 20
Their purpose is ambition,
Their practice only hate:
And if they once reply,
Then give them all the lie.
Tell them that brave it most, 25
They beg for more by spending,
Who, in their greatest cost,
Seek nothing but commending:
And if they make reply,
Then give them all the lie. 30
Tell zeal it wants devotion;
Tell love it is but lust;
Tell time it is but motion;
Tell flesh it is but dust:
And wish them not reply, 35
For thou must give the lie.
Tell age it daily wasteth;
Tell honour how it alters;
Tell beauty how she blasteth;
Tell favour how it falters: 40
And as they shall reply,
Give every one the lie.
Tell wit how much it wrangles
In tickle points of niceness;
Tell wisdom she entangles 45
Herself in over-wiseness:
And when they do reply,
Straight give them both the lie.
Tell physic of her boldness;
Tell skill it is pretension; 50
Tell charity of coldness;
Tell law it is contention:
And as they do reply,
So give them still the lie.
Tell fortune of her blindness; 55
Tell nature of decay;
Tell friendship of unkindness;
Tell justice of delay;
And if they will reply,
Then give them all the lie. 60
Tell arts they have no soundness,
But vary by esteeming;
Tell schools they want profoundness,
And stand too much on seeming:
If arts and schools reply, 65
Give arts and schools the lie.
Tell faith it’s fled the city;
Tell how the country erreth;
Tell, manhood shakes off pity;
Tell, virtue least preferreth: 70
And if they do reply,
Spare not to give the lie.
So when thou hast, as I
Commanded thee, done blabbing, —
Although to give the lie 75
Deserves no less than stabbing, —
Stab at thee he that will,
No stab the soul can kill.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Verses Found in His Bible in the Gate-House at Westminster. Said to Have Been Written the Night before His Death
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618)
EVEN such is time, that takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with earth and dust;
Who, in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways, 5
Shuts up the story of our days;
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
What Is Our Life
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618)
WHAT is our life? The play of passion.
Our mirth? The music of division:
Our mothers’ wombs the tiring-houses be,
Where we are dressed for life’s short comedy.
The earth the stage; Heaven the spectator is, 5
Who sits and views whosoe’er doth act amiss.
The graves which hide us from the scorching sun
Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.
Thus playing post we to our latest rest,
And then we die in earnest, not in jest. 10
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sir Edward Dyer
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is
Sir Edward Dyer (d. 1607)
MY mind to me a kingdom is;
Such present joys therein I find,
That it excels all other bliss
That earth affords or grows by kind:
Though much I want that most would have, 5
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
No princely pomp, no wealthy store,
No force to win the victory,
No wily wit to salve a sore,
No shape to feed a loving eye; 10
To none of these I yield as thrall;
For why? my mind doth serve for all.
I see how plenty surfeits oft,
And hasty climbers soon do fall;
I see that those which are aloft 15
Mishap doth threaten most of all:
They get with toil, they keep with fear:
Such cares my mind could never bear.
Content I live, this is my stay;
I seek no more than may suffice; 20
I press to bear no haughty sway;
Look, what I lack my mind supplies.
Lo, thus I triumph like a king,
Content with that my mind doth bring.
Some have too much, yet still do crave; 25
I little have, and seek no more.
They are but poor, though much they have,
And I am rich with little store;
They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;
They lack, I leave; they pine, I live. 30
I laugh not at another’s loss,
I grudge not at another’s gain;
No worldly waves my mind can toss;
My state at one doth still remain:
I fear no foe, I fawn no friend; 35
I loathe not life, nor dread my end.
Some weigh their pleasure by their lust,
Their wisdom by their rage of will;
Their treasure is their only trust,
A cloakèd craft their store of skill; 40
But all the pleasure that I find