by Homer
‘THESE eyes, dear Lord, once brandons of desire,
Frail scouts betraying what they had to keep,
Which their own heart, then others set on fire,
Their trait’rous black before thee here out-weep;
These locks, of blushing deeds the gilt attire, 5
Waves curling, wrackful shelves to shadow deep,
Rings wedding souls to sin’s lethargic sleep,
To touch thy sacred feet do now aspire.
In seas of care behold a sinking bark,
By winds of sharp remorse unto thee driven, 10
O let me not be Ruin’s aim’d-at-mark!
My faults confessed, Lord, say they are forgiven.’
Thus sighed to Jesus the Bethanian fair,
His tear-wet feet still drying with her hair.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Content and Resolute
William Drummond (1585–1649)
AS when it happeneth that some lovely town
Unto a barbarous besieger falls,
Who there by sword and flame himself installs,
And, cruel, it in tears and blood doth drown;
Her beauty spoiled, her citizens made thralls, 5
His spite yet so can not her all throw down
But that some statue, arch, fane of renown
Yet lurks unmaimed within her weeping walls:
So, after all the spoil, disgrace, and wrack,
That time, the world, and death, could bring combined, 10
Amidst that mass of ruins they did make,
Safe and all scarless yet remains my mind.
From this so high transcending rapture springs,
That I, all else defaced, not envy kings.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Alexis, Here She Stayed; Among These Pines
William Drummond (1585–1649)
ALEXIS, here she stayed; among these pines,
Sweet hermitress, she did alone repair;
Here did she spread the treasure of her hair,
More rich than that brought from the Colchian mines;
She set her by these muskéd eglantines. — 5
The happy place the print seems yet to bear; —
Her voice did sweeten here thy sugared lines,
To which winds, trees, beasts, birds, did lend their ear:
Me here she first perceived, and here a morn
Of bright carnations did o’erspread her face; 10
Here did she sigh, here first my hopes were born,
And I first got a pledge of promised grace;
But ah! what served it to be happy so,
Sith passéd pleasures double but new woe?
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Summons to Love
William Drummond (1585–1649)
PHœBUS, arise!
And paint the sable skies
With azure, white, and red:
Rouse Memnon’s mother from her Tithon’s bed
That she may thy career with roses spread: 5
The nightingales thy coming eachwhere sing:
Make an eternal Spring!
Give life to this dark world which lieth dead;
Spread forth thy golden hair
In larger locks than thou wast wont before, 10
And emperor-like decore
With diadem of pearl thy temples fair:
Chase hence the ugly night
Which serves but to make dear thy glorious light
— This is that happy morn, 15
That day, long-wishèd day
Of all my life so dark,
(If cruel stars have not my ruin sworn
And fates my hopes betray),
Which, purely white, deserves 20
An everlasting diamond should it mark.
This is the morn should bring unto this grove
My Love, to hear and recompense my love.
Fair King, who all preserves,
But show thy blushing beams, 25
And thou two sweeter eyes
Shalt see than those which by Penéus’ streams
Did once thy heart surprize.
Now, Flora, deck thyself in fairest guise:
If that ye winds would hear 30
A voice surpassing far Amphion’s lyre,
Your furious chiding stay;
Let Zephyr only breathe,
And with her tresses play.
— The winds all silent are, 35
And Phœbus in his chair
Ensaffroning sea and air
Makes vanish every star:
Night like a drunkard reels
Beyond the hills, to shun his flaming wheels: 40
The fields with flowers are deck’d in every hue,
The clouds with orient gold spangle their blue;
Here is the pleasant place —
And nothing wanting is, save She, alas!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
George Wither
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
I Loved a Lass
George Wither (1588–1667)
I LOVED a lass, a fair one,
As fair as e’er was seen;
She was indeed a rare one,
Another Sheba Queen;
But, fool as then I was, 5
I thought she loved me too:
But now, alas! she’s left me,
Falero, lero, loo!
Her hair like gold did glister,
Each eye was like a star, 10
She did surpass her sister,
Which pass’d all others far;
She would me honey call,
She’d — O she’d kiss me too!
But now, alas! she’s left me, 15
Falero, lero, loo!
Many a merry meeting
My love and I have had;
She was my only sweeting,
She made my heart full glad; 20
The tears stood in her eyes
Like to the morning dew:
But now, alas! she’s left me,
Falero, lero, loo!
Her cheeks were like the cherry, 25
Her skin was white as snow;
When she was blithe and merry
She angel-like did show;
Her waist exceeding small,
The fives did fit her shoe: 30
But now, alas! she’s left me,
Falero, lero, loo!
In summer time or winter
She had her heart’s desire;
I still did scorn to stint her 35
From sugar, sack, or fire;
The world went round about,
No cares we ever knew:
But now, alas! she’s left me,
Falero, lero, loo! 40
To maidens’ vows and swearing
Henceforth no credit give;
You may give them the hearing,
But never them believe;
They are as false as fair, 45
Unconstant, frail, untrue:
For mine, alas! hath left me,
Falero, lero, loo!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
The Lover’s Resolution
George Wither (1588–1667)
SHALL I, wasting in despair,
Die because a woman’s fair?
Or my cheeks make pale with care
‘Cause another’s rosy are?
Be she fairer than the day 5
Or the flowery meads in May —
If she be not so to me
What care I how fair she be?
Shall my foolish heart be pined
‘Cause I see a woman kind; 10
Or a well disposèd n
ature
Joinèd with a lovely feature?
Be she meeker, kinder, than
Turtle-dove or pelican,
If she be not so to me 15
What care I how kind she be?
Shall a woman’s virtues move
Me to perish for her love?
Or her merits’ value known
Make me quite forget mine own? 20
Be she with that goodness blest
Which may gain her name of Best;
If she seem not such to me,
What care I how good she be?
‘Cause her fortune seems too high, 25
Shall I play the fool and die?
Those that bear a noble mind
Where they want of riches find,
Think what with them they would do
Who without them dare to woo; 30
And unless that mind I see,
What care I how great she be?
Great or good, or kind or fair,
I will ne’er the more despair;
If she love me, this believe, 35
I will die ere she shall grieve;
If she slight me when I woo,
I can scorn and let her go;
For if she be not for me,
What care I for whom she be? 40
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
William Browne
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
On the Countess Dowager of Pembroke
William Browne (1591–1643)
UNDERNEATH this sable herse
Lies the subject of all verse:
Sidney’s sister, Pembroke’s mother:
Death, ere thou hast slain another
Fair and learn’d and good as she, 5
Time shall throw a dart at thee.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Robert Herrick
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Cherry-Ripe
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
CHERRY-RIPE, ripe, ripe, I cry,
Full and fair ones; come and buy.
If so be you ask me where
They do grow, I answer: There
Where my Julia’s lips do smile; 5
There’s the land, or cherry-isle,
Whose plantations fully show
All the year where cherries grow.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
A Child’s Grace
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
HERE a little child I stand
Heaving up my either hand;
Cold as paddocks though they be.
Here I lift them up to Thee,
For a benison to fall 5
On our meat and on us all. Amen.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
The Mad Maid’s Song
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
GOOD-MORROW to the day so fair,
Good-morning, sir, to you;
Good-morrow to mine own torn hair
Bedabbled with the dew.
Good-morning to this primrose too, 5
Good-morrow to each maid
That will with flowers the tomb bestrew
Wherein my love is laid.
Ah! woe is me, woe, woe is me!
Alack and well-a-day! 10
For pity, sir, find out that bee
Which bore my love away.
I’ll seek him in your bonnet brave,
I’ll seek him in your eyes;
Nay, now I think they’ve made his grave 15
I’ th’ bed of strawberries.
I’ll seek him there; I know ere this
The cold, cold earth doth shake him;
But I will go, or send a kiss
By you, sir, to awake him. 20
Pray hurt him not; though he be dead,
He knows well who do love him,
And who with green turfs rear his head,
And who do rudely move him.
He’s soft and tender (pray take heed); 25
With bands of cowslips bind him,
And bring him home — but ’tis decreed
That I shall never find him!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
To the Virgins
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
GATHER ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.
The glorious Lamp of Heaven, the Sun, 5
The higher he’s a-getting
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer; 10
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times, still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time;
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime, 15
You may for ever tarry.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
To Dianeme
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
SWEET, be not proud of those two eyes
Which starlike sparkle in their skies;
Nor be you proud, that you can see
All hearts your captives; yours yet free:
Be you not proud of that rich hair 5
Which wantons with the lovesick air;
Whenas that ruby which you wear,
Sunk from the tip of your soft ear,
Will last to be a precious stone
When all your world of beauty’s gone. 10
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
A Sweet Disorder
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
A SWEET disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness: —
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distractión, —
An erring lace, which here and there 5
Enthrals the crimson stomacher, —
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbands to flow confusedly, —
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat, — 10
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility, —
Do more bewitch me, than when art
Is too precise in every part.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Whenas in Silks
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
WHENAS in silks my Julia goes
Then, then (methinks) how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.
Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free; 5
O how that glittering taketh me!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
To Anthea who may Command Him Any Thing
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
BID me to live, and I will live
Thy Protestant to be:
Or bid me love, and I will give
A loving heart to thee.
A heart as soft, a heart as kind, 5
A heart as sound and free
As in the whole world thou canst find,
That heart I’ll give to thee.
Bid that heart stay, and it will stay,
To honour thy decree: 10
Or bid it languish quite away,
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sp; And ‘t shall do so for thee.
Bid me to weep, and I will weep
While I have eyes to see:
And having none, yet I will keep 15
A heart to weep for thee.
Bid me despair, and I’ll despair,
Under that cypress tree:
Or bid me die, and I will dare
E’en Death, to die for thee. 20
Thou art my life, my love, my heart,
The very eyes of me,
And hast command of every part,
To live and die for thee.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
To Daffodils
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
FAIR Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon:
As yet the early-rising Sun
Has not attain’d his noon.
Stay, stay, 5
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the even-song;
And, having pray’d together, we
Will go with you along. 10
We have short time to stay, as you,
We have as short a Spring!
As quick a growth to meet decay
As you, or any thing.