202.

HE

The Unfading Beauty

E that loves a rosy cheek,
Or a coral lip admires,
Or from star-like eyes doth seek
Fuel to maintain his fires:
As old Time makes these decay,
So his flames must waste away.

But a smooth and steadfast mind,
Gentle thoughts and calm desires,
Hearts with equal love combined,
Kindle never-dying fires.
Where these are not, I despise
Lovely cheeks or lips or eyes.

293. Ingrateful Beauty threatened

KNOW, Celia, since thou art so proud,

"Twas I that gave thee thy renown. Thou hadst in the forgotten crowd

Of common beauties lived unknown, Had not my verse extoll'd thy name, And with it imp'd the wings of Fame.

That killing power is none of thine;

I gave it to thy voice and eyes;
Thy sweets, thy graces, all are mine;

Thou art my star, shin'st in my skies;
Then dart not from thy borrow'd sphere
Lightning on him that fix'd thee there.

293. imp'd] grafted with new feathers.

294.

295.

Tempt me with such affrights no more,
Lest what I made I uncreate;
Let fools thy mystic form adore,
I know thee in thy mortal state.
Wise poets, that wrapt Truth in tales,
Knew her themselves through all her veils.

Epitaph

On the Lady Mary Villiers

HE Lady Mary Villiers lies

TH

Under this stone; with weeping eyes
The parents that first gave her birth,
And their sad friends, laid her in earth.
If any of them, Reader, were
Known unto thee, shed a tear;
Or if thyself possess a gem

As dear to thee, as this to them,
Though a stranger to this place,

Bewail in theirs thine own hard case:
For thou perhaps at thy return
May'st find thy Darling in an urn.

Another

HIS little vault, this narrow room,

THIS

Of Love and Beauty is the tomb;
The dawning beam, that 'gan to clear
Our clouded sky, lies darken'd here,
For ever set to us: by Death
Sent to enflame the World Beneath.

'Twas but a bud, yet did contain
More sweetness than shall spring again;

296.

A budding Star, that might have grown
Into a Sun when it had blown.
This hopeful Beauty did create
New life in Love's declining state;
But now his empire ends, and we
From fire and wounding darts are free;
His brand, his bow, let no man fear:
The flames, the arrows, all lie here:

The sparklings of thy looks and call them rays,

Takes wing,

Leaving behind him as he flies
An unperceived dimness in thine eyes.
His minutes, whilst they're told,
Do make us old;

And every sand of his fleet glass,
Increasing age as it doth pass,
Insensibly sows wrinkles there
Where flowers and roses do appear.
Whilst we do speak, our fire

Doth into ice expire,

Flames turn to frost;

And ere we can

Know how our crow turns swan,
Or how a silver snow

Springs there where jet did grow,

Our fading spring is in dull winter lost.

Since then the Night hath hurl'd
Darkness, Love's shade,

Over its enemy the Day, and made
The world

Just such a blind and shapeless thing
As 'twas before light did from darkness spring,
Let us employ its treasure

And make shade pleasure:

Let's number out the hours by blisses,
And count the minutes by our kisses;
Let the heavens new motions feel
And by our embraces wheel;
And whilst we try the way
By which Love doth convey
Soul unto soul,

And mingling so

Makes them such raptures know
As makes them entranced lie
In mutual ecstasy,

Let the harmonious spheres in music roll!

WILLIAM HABINGTON

1605-1654

297. To Roses in the Bosom of Castara

E blushing virgins happy are

YE

In the chaste nunnery of her breasts-
For he'd profane so chaste a fair,

Whoe'er should call them Cupid's nests.

Transplanted thus how bright ye grow!
How rich a perfume do ye yield!
In some close garden cowslips so
Are sweeter than i' th' open field.

In those white cloisters live secure

From the rude blasts of wanton breath!-
Each hour more innocent and pure,
Till you shall wither into death.

Then that which living gave you room,
Your glorious sepulchre shall be.
There wants no marble for a tomb

Whose breast hath marble been to me.

298. Nox Nocti Indicat Scientiam

WHEN I survey the bright

WHEN

Celestial sphere;

So rich with jewels hung, that Night
Doth like an Ethiop bride appear:

My soul her wings doth spread
And heavenward flies,

Th' Almighty's mysteries to read
In the large volumes of the skies.

For the bright firmament

Shoots forth no flame

So silent, but is eloquent

In speaking the Creator's name.

No unregarded star

Contracts its light

Into so small a character,

Removed far from our human sight,

But if we steadfast look

We shall discern

In it, as in some holy book,

How man may heavenly knowledge learn.