Laura, Come

Rose-cheeked Laura, come;

Sing thou smoothly with thy beauty's

Silent music, either other

Lovely forms do flow

Sweetly gracing,

From concent divinely framed;

Heaven is music, and thy beauty's

Birth is heavenly.

These dull notes we sing

Discords need for helps to grace them,

Only beauty purely loving

Knows no discord,

But still moves delight,

Like clear springs renewed by flowing,

Ever perfect, ever in them

selves eternal.

Thrice toss these Oaken Ashes in the Air

Thrice toss these oaken ashes in the air, Thrice sit thou mute in this enchanted chair;

And thrice three times, tie up this true love's knot!

And murmur soft "She will, or she will not."

Go burn these poisonous weeds in yon blue fire,

These screech-owl's feathers and this prickling briar;

This cypress gathered at a dead man's grave;

That all thy fears and cares an end may

have.

Then come, you Fairies, dance with me a round!

Melt her hard heart with your melodious sound!

In vain are all the charms I can devise: She hath an art to break them with her eyes.

(B 325)

417

2 E

Sweet Love, to Thee

Shall I come, sweet love, to thee,
When the evening beams are set?
Shall I not excluded be?

Will you find no feigned let?
Let me not, for pity, more,

Tell the long hours at your door!

Who can tell what thief or foe,
In the covert of the night,
For his prey will work my woe,
Or through wicked foul despite?
So may I die unredrest,

Ere my long love be possest.

But to let such dangers pass,
Which a lover's thoughts disdain,

'Tis enough in such a place

To attend love's joys in vain. Do not mock me in thy bed,

While these cold nights freeze me dead.

Thus I Resolve, and Time hath Taught me So

Thus I resolve, and time hath taught me

So,

Since she is fair and ever kind to me, Though she be wild and wanton-like in show,

Those little stains in youth I will not see, That she be constant, heaven I oft implore: If prayers prevail not, I can do no more.

Palm-tree the more you press, the more it grows;

Leave it alone it will not much exceed. Free beauty if you strive to yoke, you lose: And for affection, strange distaste you breed.

What Nature hath not taught, no Art can frame:

Wild born be wild still, though by force you tame.

Love unless

you Can

Never love unless you can

Bear with all the faults of man:
Men sometimes will jealous be,
Though but little cause they see;
And hang the head, as discontent,
And speak what straight they will repent.

Men that but one saint adore,
Make a show of love to more:
Beauty must be scorned in none,
Though but truly served in one:
For what is courtship, but disguise?
True hearts may have dissembling eyes.

Men, when their affairs require,
Must a while themselves retire,
Sometimes hunt, and sometimes hawk,
And not ever sit and talk.

If these and such like you can bear,
Then like, and love, and never fear!