Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one:

By our long starving hopes, by that remorseWhich my words’ masculine persuasive forceBegot in thee, and by the memoryOf hurts, which spies and rivals threatened me,I calmly beg: but by thy father’s wrath,By all pains, which want and divorcement hath,I conjure thee, and all the oaths which IAnd thou have sworn to seal joint constancy,Here…

Thou art like a pilgrim, which abroad hath doneTreason, and durst not turn to whence he is fled;Or like a thief, which till death’s doom be read,Wisheth himself delivered from prison,But damned and haled to execution,Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned.Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lack;But who shall give thee that…

The sun is spent, and now his flasksSend forth light squibs, no constant rays;The world’s whole sap is sunk;The general balm th’ hydroptic earth hath drunk,Whither, as to the bed’s feet, life is shrunk,Dead and interr’d; yet all these seem to laugh,Compar’d with me, who am their epitaph.Study me then, you who shall lovers beAt…

Poorly enrich’t with great men’s words or looks;Nor so write my name in thy loving booksAs those idolatrous flatterers, which stillTheir Prince’s styles, with many realms fulfilWhence they no tribute have, and where no sway.Such services I offer as shall payThemselves, I hate dead names: Oh then let meFavourite in Ordinary, or no favourite be.When…

My five grey hairs, or ruin’d fortune flout,With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve,Take you a course, get you a place,Observe his Honour, or his Grace,Or the King’s real, or his stamped faceContemplate, what you will, approve,So you will let me love.Alas, alas, who’s injur’d by my love?What merchant’s ships have my sighs…

What would’st thou say ? shall both our properties by thee be spoke,—Nothing more endless, nothing sooner broke?Marriage rings are not of this stuff ;Oh, why should ought less precious, or less toughFigure our loves ? except in thy name thou have bid it say,‘—I’m cheap, and nought but fashion ; fling me away.’Yet stay…

The fable is inverted, and far moreA block afflicts, now, than a stork before.Storms chafe, and soon wear out themselves, or us;In calms, Heaven laughs to see us languish thus.As steady’as I can wish that my thoughts were,Smooth as thy mistress’ glass, or what shines there,The sea is now; and, as the isles which weSeek,…

Consorted with these few bookes, let me lyeIn prison, and here be coffin’d, when I dye;Here are Gods conduits, grave Divines; and hereNatures Secretary, the Philosopher;And jolly Statesmen, which teach how to tieThe sinewes of a cities mistique bodie;Here gathering Chroniclers, and by them standGiddie fantastique Poets of each land.Shall I leave all this constant…

The sun it self, which makes time, as they pass,Is elder by a year now than it wasWhen thou and I first one another saw.All other things to their destruction draw,Only our love hath no decay ;This no to-morrow hath, nor yesterday ;Running it never runs from us away,But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting…

For, though her eyes be small, her mouth is great,Though they be ivory, yet her teeth be jet,Though they be dim, yet she is light enough,And though her harsh hair fall, her skin is rough;What though her cheeks be yellow, her hair’s red;Give her thine, and she hath a maidenhead.These things are beauty’s elements, where…

Him, only for his purseMay some dull whore to love dispose,And then yield unto all that are his foes ;May he be scorn’d by one, whom all else scorn,Forswear to others, what to her he hath sworn,With fear of missing, shame of getting, torn.Madness his sorrow, gout his cramps, may heMake, by but thinking who…

If swol’n with poison, he lay in his last bed,His body with a sere-bark covered,Drawing his breath, as thick and short, as canThe nimblest crocheting musician,Ready with loathsome vomiting to spewHis soul out of one hell, into a new,Made deaf with his poor kindred’s howling cries,Begging with few feigned tears, great legacies,Thou wouldst not weep,…