A Household Book of English Poetry: Selected and Arranged with Notes

American poetry; English poetry

I know she swore with raging mind,
      Her kingdom only set apart,                                     20
    There was no loss by law of kind
      That could have gone so near her heart;
    And this was chiefly all her pain:
    ‘She could not make the like again.’

    Sith Nature thus gave her the praise                              25
      To be the chiefest work she wrought;
    In faith, methink! some better ways
      On your behalf might well be sought,
    Than to compare, as ye have done,
    To match the candle with the sun.                                 30
              _Earl of Surrey._




XIII


    When first mine eyes did view and mark
      Thy beauty fair for to behold,
    And when mine ears ’gan first to hark
      The pleasant words that thou me told,
    I would as then I had been free                                    5
    From ears to hear, and eyes to see.

    And when in mind I did consent
      To follow thus my fancy’s will,
    And when my heart did first relent
      To taste such bait, myself to spill,                            10
    I would my heart had been as thine,
    Or else thy heart as soft as mine.

    O flatterer false! thou traitor born,
      What mischief more might thou devise
    Than thy dear friend to have in scorn,                            15
      And him to wound in sundry wise;
    Which still a friend pretends to be,
    And art not so by proof I see?
    Fie, fie upon such treachery!
              _William Hunnis._




XIV

_TO HIS FORSAKEN MISTRESS._


    I do confess thou’rt smooth and fair,
      And I might have gone near to love thee,
    Had I not found the slightest prayer
      That lips could speak, had power to move thee;
    But I can let thee now alone,                                      5
    As worthy to be loved by none.

    I do confess thou’rt sweet, but find
      Thee such an unthrift of thy sweets,
    Thy favours are but like the wind,
      That kisses everything it meets:                                10
    And since thou can with more than one,
    Thou’rt worthy to be kissed by none.

    The morning rose that untouched stands,
      Armed with her briars, how sweetly smells
    But, plucked and strained through ruder hands,                    15
      Her scent no longer with her dwells.
    But scent and beauty both are gone,
    And leaves fall from her, one by one.

    Such fate ere long will thee betide,
      When thou hast handled been a while;                            20
    Like sere flowers to be thrown aside;--
      And I will sigh, while some will smile,
    To see thy love for more than one
    Hath brought thee to be loved by none.
              _Sir Robert Aytoun._




XV

_THE SHEPHERDS FAREWELL._

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

A Household Book of English Poetry: Selected and Arranged with Notes

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