Ye curious chanters of the wood

That warble forth dame Nature's lays, Thinking your passions understood

By your weak accents; what's your praise When Philomel her voice doth raise?

Ye violets that first appear,

By your pure purple mantles known Like the proud virgins of the year

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As if the spring were all your own,— What are you, when the Rose is blown? 15

So when my Mistress shall be seen

In form and beauty mind,

By virtue first, then choice, a Queen, Tell me, if she were not design'd The eclipse and glory of her kind? 1620 1624.

20

Sir Henry Wotton.

GO, LOVELY ROSE

Go, lovely Rose

Tell her that wastes her time and me,

That now she knows,

When I resemble her to thee,

How sweet and fair she seems to be.

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Tell her that's young,

And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung

1645.

The Dream

In deserts where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.

Small is the worth

Of beauty from the light retired:

Bid her come forth,

Suffer herself to be desired,

And not blush so to be admired.

Then die-that she

The common fate of all things rare

May read in thee;

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15

How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair! 20

Thomas Waller.

THE DREAM

DEAR love, for nothing less than thee
Would I have broke this happy dream;
It was a theme

For reason, much too strong for fantasy.
Therefore thou waked'st me wisely; yet
My dream thou brok'st not, but continued'st it.
Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice
To make dreams truths and fables histories;
Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best
Not to dream all my dream, let 's act the rest. 10

As lightning, or a taper's light,

Thine eyes, and not thy noise, waked me;
Yet I thought thee-

For thou lov'st truth-an angel, at first sight;
But when I saw thou saw'st my heart,

And knew'st my thoughts beyond an angel's art, .
When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou

knew'st when

Excess of joy would wake me, and cam'st then, I must confess it could not choose but be Profane to think thee anything but thee.

Coming and staying show'd thee thee,
But rising makes me doubt that now
That art not thou.

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That Love is weak where Fear 's as strong as he; 'T is not all spirit pure and brave

If mixture it of Fear, Shame, Honour have.
Perchance as torches, which must ready be,
Men light and put out, so thou deal'st with me.
Thou cam'st to kindle, go'st to come: then I
Will dream that hope again, but else would die. 30
1633.
John Donne.

TO CHLORIS

From The Mulberry Garden

AH, Chloris! that I now could sit
As unconcerned as when
Your infant beauty could beget

No pleasure, nor no pain.

To Chloris

When I the dawn used to admire,
And praised the coming day,
I little thought the growing fire
Must take my rest away.

Your charms in harmless childhood lay,

Like metals in the mine;

Age from no face took more away,
Than youth concealed in thine.

But as your charms insensibly
To their perfection prest,

Fond Love as unperceived did fly,
And in my bosom rest.

My passion with your beauty grew,
And Cupid at my heart,
Still as his mother favored you,
Threw a new flaming dart.

Each gloried in their wanton part:
To make a lover, he
Employed the utmost of his art;
To make a Beauty, she.

Though now I slowly bend to love
Uncertain of my fate,

If your fair self my chains approve,
I shall my freedom hate.

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16

20

24

28

Lovers, like dying men, may well

At first disordered be,

Since none alive can truly tell

Ан, how sweet it is to love!

Ah, how gay is young desire!
And what pleasing pains we prove
When we first approach love's fire!
Pains of love be sweeter far

Than all other pleasures are.

Sighs which are from lovers blown
Do but gently heave the heart:

Even the tears they shed alone

Cure, like trickling balm, their smart.
Lovers, when they lose their breath,
Bleed away in easy death.

Love and Time with reverence use,
Treat them like a parting friend;
Nor the golden gifts refuse

Which in youth sincere they send:
For each year their price is more,
And they less simple than before.

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