Or hath it lost the virtue with the times,Or in this island altereth with the fashions?Or have our passions lesser power than theirs,Who had less art them lively to express?Is Nature grown less powerful in their heirs,Or in our fathers did she more transgress?I am sure my sighs come from a heart as trueAs any…
I tell ye, Fair, I’ll not be answer’d so,With this affirming ‘No,’ denying ‘Aye.’I say, ‘I love,’ you slightly answer ‘Aye’;I say, ‘You love,’ you pule me out a ‘No’;I say, ‘I die,’ you echo me an ‘Aye’;‘Save me,’ I cry, you sigh me out a ‘No’;Must woe and I have nought but ‘No’ and…
And beautified with beamful lamps above,By thy great wisdom set how they should moveTo guide the seasons, equally to all,Which come and go as they do rise and fall.My mighty Maker, O do thou infuseSuch life and spirit into my labouring Muse,That I may sing (what but from Noah thou hid’st)The greatest thing that ever…
With my life’s sorrow interlined so,Smok’d with my sighs and blotted with my tears,The sad memorials of my miseries,Penn’d in the grief of mine afflicted ghost,My life’s complaint in doleful elegies,With so pure love as Time could never boast.Receive the incense which I offer here,By my strong faith ascending to thy fame,My zeal, my hope,…
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,That thus so cleanly I myself can free.Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,And when we meet at any time againBe it not seen in either of our browsThat we one jot of former love retain.Now at the last gasp of Love’s latest breath,When, his…
SINCE there’s no help, come let us kiss and part,—Nay I have done, you get no more of me;And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,That thus so cleanly I myself can free;Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,And when we meet at any time again,Be it not seen in either of…
Sometimes what Schoolmen scarcely can decide,Nor yet wise Reason absolutely knows.In making trial of a murther wrought,If the vile actors of the heinous deedNear the dead body happily be brought,Oft it hath been prov’d the breathless corse will bleed.She’s coming near, that my poor heart hath slain,Long since departed, to the world no more,The ancient…
Against these folks, that think themselves so wise,I thus oppose my Reason’s forces wholly,Though I give more than well affords my state,In which expense the most suppose me vain,Which yields them nothing at the easiest rate,Yet at this price returns me treble gain.They value not, unskillful how to use,And I give much, because I gain…
Whilst I in darkness, in the self-same place,Get not one glance to recompense my merit?So doth the plowman gaze the wand’ring star,And only rest contented with the light,That never learn’d what constellations areBeyond the bent of his unknowing sight.O why should Beauty, custom to obey,To their gross sense apply herself so ill?Would God I were…
There was a time you told me that you would;But now again you will the same deny,If it might please you, would to God you could.What, will you hate? Nay, that you will not, neither.Nor love nor hate, how then? What will you do?What, will you keep a mean then betwixt either,Or will you love…
