by Homer
HAYMAKERS, rakers, reapers, and mowers,
Wait on your Summer-Queen;
Dress up with musk-rose her eglantine bowers,
Daffodils strew the green;
Sing, dance, and play, 5
’Tis holiday;
The sun does bravely shine
On our ears of corn.
Rich as a pearl
Comes every girl, 10
This is mine, this is mine, this is mine;
Let us die, ere away they be borne.
Bow to the Sun, to our Queen, and that fair one
Come to behold our sports;
Each bonny lass here is counted a rare one 15
As those in princes’ courts.
These and we
With country glee,
Will teach the woods to resound,
And the hills with echoes hollow: 20
Skipping lambs
Their bleating dams,
‘Mongst kids shall trip it round;
For joy thus our wenches we follow.
Wind, jolly huntsmen, your neat bugles shrilly, 25
Hounds make a lusty cry;
Spring up, you falconers, partridges freely,
Then let your brave hawks fly.
Horses amain,
Over ridge, over plain, 30
The dogs have the stag in chase:
’Tis a sport to content a king.
So ho, ho! through the skies
How the proud bird flies,
And sousing, kills with a grace! 35
Now the deer falls; hark! how they ring.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Cold’s the Wind
Thomas Dekker (1570–1614)
COLD’S the wind, and wet’s the rain,
Saint Hugh be our good speed!
Ill is the weather that bringeth no gain,
Nor helps good hearts in need.
Troll the bowl, the jolly nut-brown bowl, 5
And here’s, kind mate, to thee!
Let’s sing a dirge for Saint Hugh’s soul,
And down it merrily.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
O Sweet Content
Thomas Dekker (1570–1614)
ART thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers?
O sweet content!
Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplex’d?
O punishment!
Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vex’d 5
To add to golden numbers, golden numbers?
O sweet content! O sweet, O sweet content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
Honest labour bears a lovely face;
Then hey nonny nonny, hey nonny nonny! 10
Canst drink the waters of the crispèd spring?
O sweet content!
Swimm’st thou in wealth, yet sink’st in thine own tears?
O punishment!
Then he that patiently want’s burden bears 15
No burden bears, but in a king, a king!
O sweet content! O sweet, O sweet content!
Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
Honest labour bears a lovely face;
Then hey nonny nonny, hey nonny nonny! 20
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Francis Beaumont
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey
Francis Beaumont (1584–1616)
MORTALITY, behold and fear
What a change of flesh is here!
Think how many royal bones
Sleep within these heaps of stones;
Here they lie, had realms and lands, 5
Who now want strength to stir their hands,
Where from their pulpits seal’d with dust
They preach, ‘In greatness is no trust.’
Here’s an acre sown indeed
With the richest royallest seed 10
That the earth did e’er suck in
Since the first man died for sin:
Here the bones of birth have cried
‘Though gods they were, as men they died!’
Here are sands, ignoble things, 15
Dropt from the ruin’d sides of kings:
Here’s world of pomp and state
Buried in dust, once dead by fate.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Master Francis Beaumont’s Letter to Ben Jonson
Written before he and Master Fletcher came to London
Francis Beaumont (1584–1616)
THE SUN (which doth the greatest comfort bring
To absent friends, because the self-same thing
They know they see, however absent) is
Here our best haymaker (forgive me this;
It is our country’s style): in this warm shine 5
I lie, and dream of your full Mermaid Wine.
O, we have Winter mixed with claret lees,
Drink apt to bring in drier heresies
Than beer, good only for the sonnet’s strain,
With fustian metaphors to stuff the brain; 10
So mixed, that, given to the thirstiest one,
‘Twill not prove alms, unless he have the stone:
I think with one draught man’s invention fades,
Two cups had quite spoiled Homer’s Iliads!
’Tis liquor that will find out Sutcliff’s wit, 15
Lie where he will, and make him write worse yet.
Filled with such moisture, in most grievous qualms,
Did Robert Wisdom write his singing Psalms;
And so must I do this: and yet I think
It is our potion sent us down to drink, 20
By special Providence, keeps us from fights,
Makes us not laugh, when we make legs to Knights:
’Tis this that keeps our minds fit for our states;
A medicine to obey our Magistrates;
For we do live more free than you; no hate, 25
No envy at one another’s happy state,
Moves us; we are equal every whit;
Of land that God gives men, here is their wit,
If we consider fully; for our best
And gravest man will with his main-house-jest 30
Scarce please you: we want subtlety to do
The city-tricks; lie, Hate, and flatter too:
Here are none that can bear a painted show,
Strike, when you wince, and then lament the blow;
Who (like mills set the right way for to grind) 35
Can make their gains alike with every wind:
Only some fellows with the subtlest pate
Amongst us, may perchance equivocate
At selling of a horse; and that’s the most
Methinks the little wit I had is lost 40
Since I saw you; for wit is like a rest
Held up at tennis, which men do the best
With the best gamesters. What things have we seen
Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been
So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, 45
As if that every one (from whence they came)
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,
And had resolved to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life; — then when there hath been thrown
Wit able enough to justify the town 50
For three days past; wit that might warrant be
For the whole city to talk foolishly
Till that were cancelled; and, when we were gone,
We left an air behind us; which alone
Was able to make the two next companies 55
(Right witty; though but downright fools) more wise!
When I remember this, and see
that now
The country gentlemen begin to allow
My wit for dry bobs, then I needs must cry,
‘I see my days of ballating grow nigh!’ 60
I can already riddle, and can sing
Catches, sell bargains: and I fear shall bring
Myself to speak the hardest words I find
Over as oft as any, with one wind,
That takes no medicines. But one thought of thee 65
Makes me remember all these things to be
The wit of our young men, fellows that show
No part of good, yet utter all they know;
Who, like trees of the guard, have growing souls,
Only strong Destiny, which all controls, 70
I hope hath left a better fate in store
For me, thy friend, than to live ever poor,
Banished unto this home. Fate once again,
Brings me to thee, who canst make smooth and plain
The way of knowledge for me, and then I 75
(Who have no good, but in thy company,)
Protest it will my greatest comfort be,
To acknowledge all I have, to flow from thee!
Ben, when these Scenes are perfect, we’ll taste wine!
I’ll drink thy Muse’s health! thou shalt quaff mine! 80
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
John Fletcher
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Aspatia’s Song
John Fletcher (1579–1625)
LAY a garland on my hearse
Of the dismal yew;
Maidens, willow branches bear;
Say, I died true.
My love was false, but I was firm 5
From my hour of birth.
Upon my buried body lie
Lightly, gentle earth!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Melancholy
John Fletcher (1579–1625)
HENCE, all you vain delights,
As short as are the nights,
Wherein you spend your folly:
There’s nought in this life sweet
If man were wise to see’t, 5
But only melancholy,
O sweetest melancholy!
Welcome, folded arms, and fixèd eyes,
A sigh that piercing mortifies,
A look that’s fasten’d to the ground, 10
A tongue chain’d up without a sound!
Fountain heads and pathless groves,
Places which pale passion loves!
Moonlight walks, when all the fowls
Are warmly housed save bats and owls! 15
A midnight bell, a parting groan!
These are the sounds we feed upon;
Then stretch our bones in a still gloomy valley;
Nothing’s so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
John Webster
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Call for the Robin-Redbreast
John Webster (1580–1625)
CALL for the robin-redbreast and the wren,
Since o’er shady groves they hover
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.
Call unto his funeral dole 5
The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole
To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm
And (when gay tombs are robb’d) sustain no harm;
But keep the wolf far thence, that’s foe to men,
For with his nails he’ll dig them up again. 10
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
William Drummond
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Saint John Baptist
William Drummond (1585–1649)
THE LAST and greatest Herald of Heaven’s King
Girt with rough skins, hies to the deserts wild,
Among that savage brood the woods forth bring,
Which he more harmless found than man, and mild.
His food was locusts, and what there doth spring, 5
With honey that from virgin hives distill’d;
Parch’d body, hollow eyes, some uncouth thing
Made him appear, long since from earth exiled.
There burst he forth: All ye whose hopes rely
On God, with me amidst these deserts mourn, 10
Repent, repent, and from old errors turn!
— Who listen’d to his voice, obey’d his cry?
Only the echoes, which he made relent,
Rung from their flinty caves, Repent! Repent!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Madrigal
William Drummond (1585–1649)
MY thoughts hold mortal strife;
I do detest my life,
And with lamenting cries
Peace to my soul to bring
Oft call that prince which here doth monarchize: 5
— But he, grim grinning King,
Who caitiffs scorns, and doth the blest surprize,
Late having deck’d with beauty’s rose his tomb,
Disdains to crop a weed, and will not come.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Life
William Drummond (1585–1649)
THIS Life, which seems so fair,
Is like a bubble blown up in the air
By sporting children’s breath,
Who chase it everywhere
And strive who can most motion it bequeath. 5
And though it sometimes seem of its own might
Like to an eye of gold to be fix’d there,
And firm to hover in that empty height,
That only is because it is so light.
— But in that pomp it doth not long appear; 10
For when ’tis most admired, in a thought,
Because it erst was nought, it turns to nought.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Human Folly
William Drummond (1585–1649)
OF this fair volume which we World do name
If we the sheets and leaves could turn with care,
Of him who it corrects, and did it frame,
We clear might read the art and wisdom rare:
Find out his power which wildest powers doth tame, 5
His providence extending everywhere,
His justice which proud rebels doth not spare,
In every page, no period of the same.
But silly we, like foolish children, rest
Well pleased with colour’d vellum, leaves of gold. 10
Fair dangling ribbands, leaving what is best,
On the great writer’s sense ne’er taking hold;
Or if by chance we stay our minds on aught,
It is some picture on the margin wrought.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
The Problem
William Drummond (1585–1649)
DOTH then the world go thus, doth all thus move?
Is this the justice which on Earth we find?
Is this that firm decree which all doth bind?
Are these your influences, Powers above?
Those souls which vice’s moody mists most blind, 5
Blind Fortune, blindly, most their friend doth prove;
And they who thee, poor idol Virtue! love,
Ply like a feather toss’d by storm and wind.
<
br /> Ah! if a Providence doth sway this all
Why should best minds groan under most distress? 10
Or why should pride humility make thrall,
And injuries the innocent oppress?
Heavens! hinder, stop this fate; or grant a time
When good may have, as well as bad, their prime!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
To His Lute
William Drummond (1585–1649)
MY lute, be as thou wert when thou didst grow
With thy green mother in some shady grove,
When immelodious winds but made thee move,
And birds their ramage did on thee bestow.
Since that dear Voice which did thy sounds approve, 5
Which wont in such harmonious strains to flow,
Is reft from Earth to tune those spheres above,
What art thou but a harbinger of woe?
Thy pleasing notes be pleasing notes no more,
But orphans’ wailings to the fainting ear; 10
Each stroke a sigh, each sound draws forth a tear;
For which be silent as in woods before:
Or if that any hand to touch thee deign,
Like widow’d turtle still her loss complain.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
For the Magdalene
William Drummond (1585–1649)