1.

Remembrance
They flee from me, that sometime did me seek,
With naked foot, stalking within my chamber;
Once have I seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild, and do not once remember
That sometime they have put themselves in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range
Busily seeking in continual change.
Thanked be Fortune it hath been otherwise
Twenty times better; but once, especial,
In thin array, after a pleasant guise,
When her loose gown did from her shoulders fall,
And she me caught in her arms long and small,
And therewithall so sweetly did me kiss,
And softly said, 'Dear heart, how like you this?'
It was no dream; for I lay broad awaking:
But all is turned now thorough my gentleness,
Into a bitter fashion of forsaking;
And I have leave to go from her goodness,
And she also to use newfangledness.
But since that I so unkindly am served:
How like you this, what hath she now deserved?
Sir Thomas Wyatt
3. The Happy Life
My friend, the things that do attain
The happy life be these, I find.
The riches left, not got with pain;
The fruitful ground; the quiet mind;
The equal friend, no grudge, no strife;
No charge of rule, nor governance;
Without disease, the healthy life;
The household of continuance;
The mean diet, no delicate fare;
True wisdom joined with simpleness;
The night discharged of all care,
Where wine the wit may not oppress;

The faithful wife, without debate;

Such sleeps as may beguile the night;
Contented with mine own estate,
No wish for death, nor fear his might.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
6. Let Not Old Age Disgrace My High Desire
Let not old age disgrace my high desire,
O heavenly soul, in human shape contained:
Old wood inflamed doth yield the bravest fire,
When younger doth in smoke his virtue spend.
Nor let white hairs, which on my face do grow,
Seem to your eyes of a disgraceful hue,
Since whiteness doth present the sweetest show,
Which makes all eyes do homage unto you.
Old age is wise and full of constant truth;
Old age well stayed from ranging humor lives;
Old age hath known what ever was in youth;
Old age o'ercome, the greater honor gives:
And to old age since you yourself aspire,
Let not old age disgrace my high desire.
Sir Philip Sidney
7. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Come live with me, and be my love:
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Woods or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
With a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,

With buckles of the purest gold,

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And, if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.
The shepherd-swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.
Christopher Marlowe
13. Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May;
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or Nature's changing course, untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ownest,
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou growest.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
William Shakespeare