Gentle nymphs, be not refusing, Love's neglect is time's abusing, They and beauty are but lent you; Take the one and keep the other; Love keeps fresh what age doth smother;...
Lo, I the man that whilom lov'd and lost, Not dreading loss, do sing again of love; And like a man but lately tempest-toss'd, Try if my stars still inauspicious prove: Not to make good that poets never can...
Why might I not for once be of that sect, Which hold that souls, when Nature hath her right, Some other bodies to themselves elect; And sunlike make the day, and license night?...
Fairest, when by the rules of palmistry You took my hand to try if you could guess By lines therein if any wight there be Ordain'd to make me know some happiness;...
Were't not for you, here should my pen have rest And take a long leave of sweet poesy; Britannia's swains, and rivers far by west, Should hear no more mine oaten melody;...
Sing soft, ye pretty birds, while C'lia sleeps, And gentle gales play gently with the leaves; Learn of the neighbour brooks, whose silent deeps Would teach him fear, that her soft sleep bereaves...
Glide soft, ye silver floods, And every spring: Within the shady woods Let no bird sing! Nor from the grove a turtle-dove Be seen to couple with her love;...
Roget, droop not, see the spring Is the earth enamelling, And the birds on every tree Greet this morn with melody: Hark, how yonder thrustle chants it,...
The year hath first his jocund spring, Wherein the leaves, to birds' sweet carolling, Dance with the wind; then sees the summer's day Perfect the embryon blossom of each spray;...
Steer hither, steer your wing'd pines, All beaten mariners, Here lie Love's undiscover'd mines, A prey to passengers; Perfumes far sweeter than the best Which makes the Phoenix' urn and nest....
I saw a silver swan swim down the Lea, Singing a sad farewell unto the vale, While fishes leapt to hear her melody, And on each thorn a gentle nightingale And many other birds forbore their notes,...
A rose, as fair as ever saw the North, Grew in a little garden all alone; A sweeter flower did Nature ne'er put forth, Nor fairer garden yet was never known: The maidens danc'd about it morn and noon,...
Down in a valley, by a forest's side, Near where the crystal Thames rolls on her waves, I saw a mushroom stand in haughty pride, As if the lilies grew to be his slaves;...
A gentle shepherd, born in Arcady, That well could tune his pipe, and deftly play The nymphs asleep with rural minstrelsy, Methought I saw, upon a summer's day, Take up a little satyr in a wood,...