Let those who are in favour with their stars

So, now I have confessed that he is thine,And I my self am mortgaged to thy will,Myself I’ll forfeit, so that other mineThou wilt restore to be my comfort still.But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free,For thou art covetous, and he is kind,He learned but surety-like to write for meUnder that bond…

But be contented when that fell arrestWithout all bail shall carry me away;My life hath in this line some interest,Which for memorial still with thee shall stay.When thou reviewest this, thou dost reviewThe very part was consecrate to thee,The earth can have but earth, which is his due;My spirit is thine the better part of…

Who is it that says most, which can say more,Than this rich praise — that you alone are you,In whose confine immurèd is the storeWhich should example where your equal grew?Lean penury within that pen doth dwellThat to his subject lends not some small glory;But he that writes of you, if he can tellThat you…

Who will believe my verse in time to comeIf it were filled with your most high deserts?Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tombWhich hides your life, and shows not half your parts:If I could write the beauty of your eyes,And in fresh numbers number all your graces,The age to come would say,…

That time of year thou mayst in me beholdWhen yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hangUpon those boughs which shake against the cold,Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.In me thou seest the twilight of such dayAs after sunset fadeth in the west,Which by and by black night doth take away,Death’s second…

Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,And like enough thou know’st thy estimate:The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;My bonds in thee are all determinate.For how do I hold thee but by thy granting?And for that riches where is my deserving?The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,And so my patent…

YOU spotted snakes with double tongue,Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong;Come not near our fairy queen. Philomel, with melody,Sing in our sweet lullaby;Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby!Never harm,Nor spell nor charm,Come our lovely lady nigh;So, good night, with lullaby. Weaving spiders, come not here;Hence, you long-legg’d spinners, hence!Beetles black, approach…

MY love is strengthen’d, though more weak in seeming;I love not less, though less the show appear:That love is merchandised whose rich esteemingThe owner’s tongue doth publish everywhere.Our love was new, and then but in the spring,When I was wont to greet it with my lays;As Philomel in summer’s front doth singAnd stops her pipe…

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,Injurious distance should not stop my way;For then despite of space I would be brought,From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.No matter then although my foot did standUpon the farthest earth removed from thee;For nimble thought can jump both sea and landAs soon as think the…

POOR soul, the centre of my sinful earth–My sinful earth these rebel powers array–Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?Why so large cost, having so short a lease,Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body’s end?Then, soul,…