George Herbert

95. Love

LOVE bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,

Guiltie of dust and sinne.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
5
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lack'd any thing.

A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:

Love said, you shall be he.
I the unkinde, ungratefull? Ah my deare,
10
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marr'd them: let my shame

Go where it doth deserve.
15
And know you not, sayes Love, who bore the blame?
My deare, then I will serve.
You must sit down, sayes Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
 Sidney Godolphin

99. "Lord when the wise men came from farr"

LORD when the wise men came from farr

Ledd to thy Cradle by A Starr,
Then did the shepheards too rejoyce,
Instructed by thy Angells voyce,
5
Blest were the wisemen in their skill,
And shepheards in their harmelesse will.

Wisemen in tracing natures lawes

Ascend unto the highest cause,
Shepheards with humble fearefulnesse
10
Walke safely, though their light be lesse:
Though wisemen better know the way
It seemes noe honest heart can stray.

Ther is noe merrit in the wise

But love, (the shepheards sacrifice).
15
Wisemen all wayes of knowledge past,
To th' shepheards wonder come at last,
To know, can only wonder breede,
And not to know, is wonders seede.

A wiseman at the Alter bowes

20
And offers up his studied vowes
And is received; may not the teares,
Which spring too from a shepheards feares,
And sighs upon his fraylty spent,
Though not distinct, be eloquent?
25
Tis true, the object sanctifies
All passions which within us rise,
But since noe creature comprehends
The cause of causes, end of ends,
Hee who himselfe vouchsafes to know
30
Best pleases his creator soe.

When then our sorrowes we applye

To our owne wantes and poverty,
When wee looke up in all distresse
And our owne misery confesse
35
Sending both thankes and prayers above,
Then though wee do not know, we love.
William Shakespeare

"Over Hill, Over Dale"

(From "Midsummer Night's Dream")
Over hill, over dale,
Through bush, through briar,
Over park, over pale,
Through blood, through fire,
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moones sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslips ear.
Farewell, thou lob of spirits; Ill be gone:
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.
William Shakespeare

"That Time Of Year.."

(From Sonnets, LXXIII)
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruind choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadetn in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seeest the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumd with that which it was nourishd by.
This thou perceivst which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long:
William Shakespeare

"When I Have Seen..."

(From Sonnets, LXIV)
When I have seen by Times fell hand defacd
The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see down-rasd,
And brass eternal, slave to mortal rage;
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the watry main,
Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;
When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded to decay;
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate
That Time will come and take my love away.
This thought is as a death, whish cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.