If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two, Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if th’ other do. And though it in the centre sit, Yet when the other far doth roam, It leans and hearkens after it, And grows erect as that comes home. Such wilt thou be to me, who must Like th’ other foot obliquely run, Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun. DONNE, _A Valediction forbidding Mourning_ (2) But at my back I always hear Time’s winged chariot hurrying near, And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found, Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song: then worms shall try That long preserved virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust: The grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. MARVELL, _To his Coy Mistress_ (3) When, like committed linnets, I With shriller throat shall sing The sweetness, mercy, majesty, And glories of my King; When I shall voice aloud, how good He is, how great should be, Enlarged winds that curl the flood Know no such liberty. Stone walls do not a prison make, 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, Angels alone, that soar above, Enjoy such liberty. LOVELACE, _To Althea, from Prison_ (4) Each little pimple had a tear in it, To wail the fault its rising did commit. DRYDEN, _Upon the Death of the Lord Hastings_ (5) The plants, whose luxury was lopped, Or age with crutches underpropped, Whose wooden carcases are grown To be but coffins of their own, Revive, and at her general dole, Each receives his ancient soul. CLEVELAND (6) Her finger was so small, the ring, Would not stay on, which they did bring, It was too wide a peck: And to say the truth (for out it must) It looked like the great collar (just) About our young colt’s neck. Her feet beneath her petticoat, Like little mice, stole in and out, As if they feared the light: But O, she dances such a way! No sun upon an Easter-day Is half so fine a sight.