1648.

To Daisies, Not to Shut so Soon

Bid me to weep, and I will weep

While I have eyes to see:
And, having none, yet will I keep
A heart to weep for thee.

Bid me despair, and I'll despair
Under that cypress-tree:
Or bid me die, and I will dare

E'en death to die for thee.

Thou art my life, my love, my heart,

The very eyes of me:

And hast command of every part

To live and die for thee.

16

20

24

Robert Herrick.

TO DAISIES, NOT TO SHUT

SO SOON

SHUT not so soon; the dull-eyed night

Has not as yet begun

To make a seizure on the light,

1648.

Stay but till my Julia close

Her life-begetting eye,

And let the whole world then dispose
Itself to live or die.

12

Robert Herrick.

THE NIGHT-PIECE, TO JULIA

HER eyes the glow-worm lend thee,
The shooting stars attend thee;
And the elves also,

Whose little eyes glow

Like sparks of fire, befriend thee.

No Will-o'-the-wisp mislight thee,
Nor snake or slow-worm bite thee;
But on, on thy way

Not making a stay,

5

Since ghost there 's none to affright thee. 10

Let not the dark thee cumber:

What though the moon does slumber?

The stars of the night

Will lend thee their light

TO LUCASTA, GOING BEYOND

THE SEAS

IF to be absent were to be

Away from thee;

Or that when I am gone

You or I were alone;

Then, my Lucasta, might I crave

Pity from blustering wind or swallowing wave.

But I'll not sigh one blast or gale

To swell my sail,

Or pay a tear to 'suage

The foaming blue god's rage;
For whether he will let me pass

Or no, I'm still as happy as I was.

Though seas and land betwixt us both,

Our faith and troth,

Like separated souls,

All time and space controls:

Above the highest sphere we meet,

Unseen, unknown; and greet as Angels greet.

So then we do anticipate

Our after-fate,

12

18

6

And are alive i' the skies,

If thus our lips and eyes

Can speak like spirits unconfined

In Heaven, their earthy bodies left behind.

1649.

24

Richard Lovelace.

TO ALTHEA FROM PRISON

WHEN Love with unconfinèd wings

Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings

To whisper at my grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair

And fettered with her eye,

The birds that wanton in the air

Know no such liberty.

When flowing cups run swiftly round
With no allaying Thames,

Our careless heads with roses crowned,
Our hearts with loyal flames;

When thirsty grief in wine we steep,

When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes that tipple in the deep

Know no such liberty.

When (like committed linnets) I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty
And glories of my King;

8

16

The Lark Now Leaves His Wat'ry Nest

1649.

When I shall voice aloud how good

He is, how great should be,

The enlarged winds, that curl the flood,

Know no such liberty.

Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage:
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,

Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.

24

32

Richard Lovelace.

"THE LARK NOW LEAVES HIS

WAT'RY NEST"

THE lark now leaves his wat'ry nest,
And climbing shakes his dewy wings.
He takes this window for the East,

And to implore your light he sings-
Awake, awake! the morn will never rise
Till she can dress her beauty at your eyes.

The merchant bows unto the seaman's star,
The ploughman from the sun his season takes;
But still the lover wonders what they are

Who look for day before his mistress wakes. Awake, awake! break thro' your veils of lawn! Then draw your curtains, and begin the dawn! 12 Sir William Davenant.

1672.