by Homer
HE that loves a rosy cheek
Or a coral lip admires,
Or from star-like eyes doth seek
Fuel to maintain his fires;
As old Time makes these decay, 5
So his flames must waste away.
But a smooth and steadfast mind,
Gentle thoughts, and calm desires,
Hearts with equal love combined,
Kindle never-dying fires: — 10
Where these are not, I despise
Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Ask Me No More
Thomas Carew (1595–1639)
ASK me no more where Jove bestows,
When June is past, the fading rose;
For in your beauty’s orient deep
These flowers, as in their causes, sleep.
Ask me no more whither do stray 5
The golden atoms of the day;
For in pure love did heaven prepare
Those powders to enrich your hair.
Ask me no more whither doth haste
The nightingale when May is past; 10
For in your sweet dividing throat
She winters and keeps warm her note.
Ask me no more where those stars ‘light
That downwards fall in dead of night;
For in your eyes they sit, and there 15
Fixèd become as in their sphere.
Ask me no more if east or west
The Phœnix builds her spicy nest;
For unto you at last she flies,
And in your fragrant bosom dies. 20
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Know, Celia
Thomas Carew (1595–1639)
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, 5
And with it imp’d the wings of Fame.
That killing power is none of thine:
I gave it to thy voice and eyes;
Thy sweets, thy graces, all are mine;
Thou art my star, shin’st in my skies; 10
Then dart not from thy borrowed sphere
Lightning on him that fixed thee there.
Tempt me with such affrights no more,
Lest what I made I uncreate;
Let fools thy mystic forms adore, 15
I know thee in thy mortal state:
Wise poets, that wrapt Truth in tales,
Knew her themselves through all her veils.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Give Me More Love
Thomas Carew (1595–1639)
GIVE me more love, or more disdain;
The torrid or the frozen zone
Bring equal ease unto my pain;
The temperate affords me none:
Either extreme, of love or hate, 5
Is sweeter than a calm estate.
Give me a storm; if it be love —
Like Danaë in that golden shower,
I’ll swim in pleasure; if it prove
Disdain, that torrent will devour 10
My vulture hopes; and he’s possessed
Of heaven, that’s from hell released.
Then crown my joys, or cure my pain;
Give me more love, or more disdain.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sir John Suckling
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
The Constant Lover
Sir John Suckling (1609–1642)
OUT upon it, I have loved
Three whole days together!
And am like to love three more,
If it prove fair weather.
Time shall moult away his wings 5
Ere he shall discover
In the whole wide world again
Such a constant lover.
But the spite on ‘t is, no praise
Is due at all to me: 10
Love with me had made no stays,
Had it any been but she.
Had it any been but she,
And that very face,
There had been at least ere this 15
A dozen dozen in her place.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Why So Pale and Wan
Sir John Suckling (1609–1642)
WHY so pale and wan, fond lover?
Prythee, why so pale?
Will, if looking well can’t move her,
Looking ill prevail?
Prythee, why so pale? 5
Why so dull and mute, young sinner?
Prythee, why so mute?
Will, when speaking well can’t win her,
Saying nothing do’t?
Prythee, why so mute? 10
Quit, quit, for shame! this will not move,
This cannot take her;
If of herself she will not love,
Nothing can make her:
The devil take her! 15
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Sir William D’Avenant
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Dawn Song
Sir William D’Avenant (1606–1668)
THE LARK now leaves his wat’ry nest,
And climbing shakes his dewy wings.
He takes this window for the East,
And to implore your light he sings —
Awake, awake! the morn will never rise 5
Till she can dress her beauty at your eyes.
The merchant bows unto the seaman’s star,
The ploughman from the sun his season takes;
But still the lover wonders what they are
Who look for day before his mistress wakes. 10
Awake, awake! break thro’ your veils of lawn!
Then draw your curtains, and begin the dawn!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Richard Lovelace
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars
Richard Lovelace (1618–1658)
TELL me not, Sweet, I am unkind
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind,
To war and arms I fly.
True, a new mistress now I chase, 5
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.
Yet this inconstancy is such
As you too shall adore; 10
I could not love thee, Dear, so much,
Loved I not Honour more.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
To Althea from Prison
Richard Lovelace (1618–1658)
WHEN Love with unconfinèd wings
Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair 5
And fetter’d to her eye,
The birds that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty.
When flowing cups run swiftly round
With no allaying Thames, 10
Our careless heads with roses crown’d,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free —
Fishes
that tipple in the deep 15
Know no such liberty.
When, linnet-like confinèd I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty
And glories of my King; 20
When I shall voice aloud how good
He is, how great should be,
Enlargèd winds, that curl the flood,
Know no such liberty.
Stone walls do not a prison make, 25
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free, 30
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
To Lucasta, Going Beyond the Seas
Richard Lovelace (1618–1658)
IF to be absent were to be
Away from thee;
Or that when I am gone
You or I were alone;
Then, my Lucasta, might I crave 5
Pity from blustering wind, or swallowing wave.
But I’ll not sigh one blast or gale
To swell my sail,
Or pay a tear to ‘suage
The foaming blue god’s rage; 10
For whether he will let me pass
Or no, I’m still as happy as I was.
Though seas and land betwixt us both,
Our faith and troth,
Like separated souls, 15
All time and space controls:
Above the highest sphere we meet
Unseen, unknown, and greet as Angels greet.
So then we do anticipate
Our after-fate, 20
And are alive i’ the skies,
If thus our lips and eyes
Can speak like spirits unconfined
In Heaven, their earthly bodies left behind.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Edmund Waller
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
On a Girdle
Edmund Waller (1606–1687)
THAT which her slender waist confined
Shall now my joyful temples bind;
No monarch but would give his crown
His arms might do what this has done.
It was my Heaven’s extremest sphere, 5
The pale which held that lovely deer:
My joy, my grief, my hope, my love,
Did all within this circle move.
A narrow compass! and yet there
Dwelt all that’s good, and all that’s fair: 10
Give me but what this ribband bound,
Take all the rest the Sun goes round.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Go, Lovely Rose!
Edmund Waller (1606–1687)
GO, lovely Rose!
Tell her, that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be. 5
Tell her that’s young
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung
In deserts, where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died. 10
Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired:
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired. 15
Then die! that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee:
How small a part of time they share
They are so wondrous sweet and fair! 20
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
William Cartwright
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
On the Queen’s Return from the Low Countries
William Cartwright (1611–1643)
HALLOW the threshold, crown the posts anew!
The day shall have its due.
Twist all our victories into one bright wreath,
On which let honour breathe:
Then throw it round the temples of our Queen! 5
’Tis she that must preserve those glories green.
When greater tempests than on sea before
Received her on the shore;
When she was shot at ‘for the King’s own good’
By legions hired to blood; 10
How bravely did she do, how bravely bear!
And show’d, though they durst rage, she durst not fear.
Courage was cast about her like a dress
Of solemn comeliness:
A gather’d mind and an untroubled face 15
Did give her dangers grace:
Thus, arm’d with innocence, secure they move
Whose highest ‘treason’ is but highest love.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
James Graham, Marquis of Montrose
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
My Dear and Only Love
James Graham, Marquis of Montrose (1612–1650)
MY dear and only Love, I pray
That little world of thee
Be govern’d by no other sway
Than purest monarchy;
For if confusion have a part 5
(Which virtuous souls abhor),
And hold a synod in thine heart,
I’ll never love thee more.
Like Alexander I will reign,
And I will reign alone; 10
My thoughts did evermore disdain
A rival on my throne.
He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
That dares not put it to the touch, 15
To gain or lose it all.
And in the empire of thine heart,
Where I should solely be,
If others do pretend a part
Or dare to vie with me, 20
Or if Committees thou erect,
And go on such a score,
I’ll laugh and sing at thy neglect,
And never love thee more.
But if thou wilt prove faithful then, 25
And constant of thy word,
I’ll make thee glorious by my pen
And famous by my sword;
I’ll serve thee in such noble ways
Was never heard before; 30
I’ll crown and deck thee all with bays,
And love thee more and more.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Richard Crashaw
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Wishes for the Supposed Mistress
Richard Crashaw (1613–1649)
WHOE’ER she be,
That not impossible She
That shall command my heart and me;
Where’er she lie,
Lock’d up from mortal eye 5
In shady leaves of destiny:
Till that ripe birth
Of studied Fate stand forth,
And teach her fair steps tread our earth;
Till that divine 10
Idea take a shrine
Of crystal flesh, through which to shine:
— Meet you her, my Wishes,
Bespeak her to my blisses,
And be ye call’d, my absent kisses. 15
I wish her Beauty
That owes not all its duty
To gaudy tire, or glist’ring shoe-tie:
>
Something more than
Taffata or tissue can, 20
Or rampant feather, or rich fan.
A Face that’s best
By its own beauty drest,
And can alone commend the rest:
A Face made up 25
Out of no other shop
Than what Nature’s white hand sets ope.
A Cheek, where youth
And blood, with pen of truth,
Write what the reader sweetly ru’th. 30
A Cheek, where grows
More than a morning rose,
Which to no box his being owes.
Lips, where all day
A lover’s kiss may play, 35
Yet carry nothing thence away.
Looks, that oppress
Their richest tires, but dress
And clothe their simplest nakedness.
