SONG CAREW AND HABINGTON If the quick spirits in your eye Then, Celia, let us reap our joys Or if that golden fleece must grow If those bright suns must know no shade, Nor your fresh beauties ever fade; Then fear not, Celia, to bestow What, still being gather'd, still must grow. Thus either Time his sickle brings 12 II INGRATEFUL BEAUTY THREATENED Know, Celia, since thou art so proud, 'Twas I that gave thee thy renown. Thou hadst in the forgotten crowd Of common beauties lived unknown, Had not my verse extoll'd thy name, And with it imp'd the wings of Fame. That killing power is none of thine; Thou art my star, shin'st in my skies; Then dart not from thy borrow'd sphere Lightning on him that fix'd thee there. Tempt me with such affrights no more, Lest what I made I uncreate; Let fools thy mystic form adore, I know thee in thy mortal state. AN EPITAPH This little vault, this narrow room, 'Twas but a bud, yet did contain 173 12 WILLIAM HABINGTON (1605-1654) NOX NOCTI INDICAT SCIENTIAM When I survey the bright Celestial sphere; So rich with jewels hung, that night My soul her wings doth spread Th' Almighty's mysteries to read For the bright firmament Shoots forth no flame So silent, but is eloquent In speaking the Creator's name. No unregarded star Contracts its light Into so small a character, Removed far from our human sight, 8 12 16 19 In it, as in some holy book, How man may heavenly knowledge learn. It tells the conqueror Some nation yet shut in With hills of ice EDMUND WALLER (1606-1687) May be let out to scourge his sin, Till they shall equal him in vice. 32 THE STORY OF PHOEBUS AND DAPHNE, APPLIED Thyrsis, a youth of the inspired train, Invoked to testify the lover's care, Or form some image of his cruel fair. Urged with his fury, like a wounded deer, 5 10 4 For Prayer the ocean is where diversely All the love betwixt us two. Men steer their course, each to a sev'ral coast; Where all our interests so discordant be 7 What has been our past desire; That half beg winds by which the rest are lost. On what shepherds you have smiled, Or what nymphs I have beguiled; By Penitence when we ourselves forsake, Leave it to the planets too, 'Tis but in wise design on piteous Heaven; In Praise we nobly give what God may take, And are, without a beggar's blush, forgiven. 12 What we shall hereafter do; 20 To hear the lark begin his flight, While the cock, with lively din, Oft listening how the hounds and horn 45 50 15 Russet lawns and fallows grey, Where the nibbling flocks do stray; Mountains on whose barren breast 10 20 And fresh-blown roses washed in dew, Filled her with thee, a daughter fair, So buxom, blithe, and debonair. Bosomed high in tufted trees, Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, And love to live in dimple sleck; 30 Of herbs and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses; And then in haste her bower she leaves, With Thestylis to bind the sheaves; Or, if the earlier season lead, To the tanned haycock in the mead. The upland hamlets will invite, 85 L'ALLEGRO 179 And young and old come forth to play On a sunshine holiday, Till the livelong daylight fail: Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, With stories told of many a feat, How faery Mab the junkets eat. She was pinched and pulled, she said; And he, by friar's lantern led, 100 105 ΙΙΟ IL PENSEROSO Hence, vain deluding Joys, The brood of Folly without father bred! How little you bested, Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys! Dwell in some idle brain, 5 And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As thick and numberless As the gay motes that people the sun-beams, Or likest hovering dreams, The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train. 10 But hail, thou Goddess sage and holy, Hail, divinest Melancholy! Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight, 15 20 |