Pallas in wit, all three, if you well view, For beauty, wit, and matchless dignity, Yield to Samela.
H! were she pitiful as she is fair, Or but as mild as she is seeming so,
Then were my hopes greater than my despair, Then all the world were heaven, nothing woe. Ah! were her heart relenting as her hand, That seems to melt even with the mildest touch, Then knew I where to seat me in a land Under wide heavens, but yet there is not such. So as she shows she seems the budding rose, Yet sweeter far than is an earthly flower; Sovran of beauty, like the spray she grows; Compass'd she is with thorns and canker'd flower. Yet were she willing to be pluck'd and worn, She would be gather'd, though she grew on thorn.
Ah! when she sings, all music else be still, For none must be compared to her note; Ne'er breathed such glee from Philomela's bill, Nor from the morning-singer's swelling throat. Ah! when she riseth from her blissful bed She comforts all the world as doth the sun, And at her sight the night's foul vapour's fled; When she is set the gladsome day is done. O glorious sun, imagine me the west, Shine in my arms, and set thou in my breast!
WEEP not, my wanton, smile upon my knee;
When thou art old there's grief enough for thee. Mother's wag, pretty boy,
Father's sorrow, father's joy; When thy father first did see Such a boy by him and me, He was glad, I was woe; Fortune changed made him so, When he left his pretty boy, Last his sorrow, first his joy.
Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee; When thou art old there's grief enough for thee. Streaming tears that never stint, Like pearl-drops from a flint, Fell by course from his eyes, That one another's place supplies; Thus he grieved in every part,
Tears of blood fell from his heart, When he left his pretty boy,
Father's sorrow, father's joy.
Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee;
When thou art old there's grief enough for thee. The wanton smiled, father wept,
Mother cried, baby leapt;
More he crow'd, more we cried, Nature could not sorrow hide:
He must go, he must kiss Child and mother, baby bliss, For he left his pretty boy,
Father's sorrow, father's joy.
Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee,
When thou art old there's grief enough for thee.
PERFECT Light, which shaid away The darkness from the light,
And set a ruler o'er the day,
Another o'er the night
Thy glory, when the day forth flies, More vively doth appear Than at mid day unto our eyes The shining sun is clear.
The shadow of the earth anon Removes and drawis by,
While in the East, when it is gone,
Appears a clearer sky.
Which soon perceive the little larks,
The lapwing and the snipe,
And tune their songs, like Nature's clerks, O'er meadow, muir, and stripe.
Our hemisphere is polisht clean, And lighten'd more and more, While everything is clearly seen Which seemit dim before :
Except the glistering astres bright, Which all the night were clear, Offuskit with a greater light
No longer do appear.
The golden globe incontinent Sets up his shining head, And o'er the earth and firmament Displays his beams abread.
For joy the birds with boulden throats Against his visage sheen
Take up their kindly musick notes In woods and gardens green.
The dew upon the tender crops, Like pearlis white and round, Or like to melted silver drops, Refreshis all the ground.
The misty reek, the clouds of rain, From tops of mountains skails, Clear are the highest hills and plain, The vapours take the vales.
The ample heaven of fabrick sure In cleanness does surpass The crystal and the silver pure, Or clearest polisht glass.
The time so tranquil is and still That nowhere shall ye find, Save on a high and barren hill, An air of peeping wind.
All trees and simples, great and small,
That balmy leaf do bear,
Than they were painted on a wall
No more they move or steir.
sheen] bright. skails] clears.
Calm is the deep and purple sea, Yea, smoother than the sand; The waves that weltering wont to be Are stable like the land.
So silent is the cessile air That every cry and call
The hills and dales and forest fair
Again repeats them all.
The flourishes and fragrant flowers, Through Phoebus' fostering heat, Refresht with dew and silver showers Cast up an odour sweet.
The cloggit busy humming bees, That never think to drone, On flowers and flourishes of trees Collect their liquor brown.
The Sun, most like a speedy post With ardent course ascends; The beauty of the heavenly host Up to our zenith tends.
The burning beams down from his face
So fervently can beat,
That man and beast now seek a place To save them from the heat.
The herds beneath some leafy tree Amidst the flowers they lie; The stable ships upon the sea Tend up their sails to dry.
cessile] yielding, ceasing. flourishes] blossoms.
« PreviousContinue » |