144

LOVE, LOVE'S DUE.

If Cynthia crave her ring of me,
I blot her name out of the tree.
If doubt do darken things held dear,
Then well-fare nothing once a year.

For many run, but one must win:
Fools only hedge the cuckoo in.

The worth that worthiness should move
Is love, which is the due of love;
And love as well the shepherd can
As can the mighty nobleman.

Sweet nymph, 'tis true, you worthy be;
Yet, without love, naught worth to me.

Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke.

THE BOLDNESS OF HUMILITY.

145

THE BOLDNESS OF HUMILITY.

By Heaven! I'll tell her boldly that 't is she!
Why should she shamed or angry be

To be beloved by me?

The gods may give their altars o'er,They'll smoke but seldom any more, If none but happy men must them adore.

The lightning, which tall oaks oppose in vain,
To strike sometimes does not disdain
The humble furzes of the plain.
She being so high, and I so low,

Her power by this does greater show,

Who at such distance gives so sure a blow.

Compared with her all things so worthless prove,
That naught on earth can toward her move,
Till 't be exalted by her love.

Equal to her, alas! there's none;

She like a deity is grown,

That must create, or else must be alone.

If there be man who thinks himself so high
As to pretend equality,

He deserves her less than I;

For he would cheat for his relief,

And one would give with lesser grief To an undeserving beggar than a thief.

A. Cowley.

Elder Poets.

ΙΟ

146

SWEET-AND-TWENTY.

SWEET-AND-TWENTY.

O MISTRESS mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love's coming,
That can sing both high and low.

Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers' meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.

What is love? 'tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies no plenty;
Then come kiss me, sweet-and-twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure.

W. Shakespeare.

COUNSEL TO GIRLS.

147

COUNSEL TO GIRLS.

GATHER ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:

And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious Lamp of Heaven, the Sun,
The higher he's a getting

The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times, still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time;
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

R. Herrick.

148

FAIR AND FALSE.

· FAIR AND FALSE.

IF thou beest born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,

Ride ten thousand days and nights

Till age snow white hairs on thee;
Thou, when thou return'st wilt tell me
All strange wonders that befell thee,

And swear,

No where,

Lives a woman true and fair.

If thou find one, let me know,

Such a pilgrimage were sweet;—

Yet do not! I would not go,

Though at next door we might meet.
Though she were true when you met her,
And lasted till you wrote your letter,

Yet she,

Will be,

False ere I come, to two or three!

Dr. J. Donne.