Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (104 page)
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Authors: Homer,William Shakespeare
Alexis, Here She Stayed; Among These Pines
William Drummond (1585–1649)
ALEXIS, here she stayed; among these pines,
Sweet hermitress, she did alone repair;
Here did she spread the treasure of her hair,
More rich than that brought from the Colchian mines;
She set her by these muskéd eglantines. —
5
The happy place the print seems yet to bear; —
Her voice did sweeten here thy sugared lines,
To which winds, trees, beasts, birds, did lend their ear:
Me here she first perceived, and here a morn
Of bright carnations did o’erspread her face;
10
Here did she sigh, here first my hopes were born,
And I first got a pledge of promised grace;
But ah! what served it to be happy so,
Sith passéd pleasures double but new woe?
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
William Drummond (1585–1649)
PHœBUS, arise!
And paint the sable skies
With azure, white, and red:
Rouse Memnon’s mother from her Tithon’s bed
That she may thy career with roses spread:
5
The nightingales thy coming eachwhere sing:
Make an eternal Spring!
Give life to this dark world which lieth dead;
Spread forth thy golden hair
In larger locks than thou wast wont before,
10
And emperor-like decore
With diadem of pearl thy temples fair:
Chase hence the ugly night
Which serves but to make dear thy glorious light
— This is that happy morn,
15
That day, long-wishèd day
Of all my life so dark,
(If cruel stars have not my ruin sworn
And fates my hopes betray),
Which, purely white, deserves
20
An everlasting diamond should it mark.
This is the morn should bring unto this grove
My Love, to hear and recompense my love.
Fair King, who all preserves,
But show thy blushing beams,
25
And thou two sweeter eyes
Shalt see than those which by Penéus’ streams
Did once thy heart surprize.
Now, Flora, deck thyself in fairest guise:
If that ye winds would hear
30
A voice surpassing far Amphion’s lyre,
Your furious chiding stay;
Let Zephyr only breathe,
And with her tresses play.
— The winds all silent are,
35
And Phœbus in his chair
Ensaffroning sea and air
Makes vanish every star:
Night like a drunkard reels
Beyond the hills, to shun his flaming wheels:
40
The fields with flowers are deck’d in every hue,
The clouds with orient gold spangle their blue;
Here is the pleasant place —
And nothing wanting is, save She, alas!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
George Wither (1588–1667)
I LOVED a lass, a fair one,
As fair as e’er was seen;
She was indeed a rare one,
Another Sheba Queen;
But, fool as then I was,
5
I thought she loved me too:
But now, alas! she’s left me,
Falero, lero, loo!
Her hair like gold did glister,
Each eye was like a star,
10
She did surpass her sister,
Which pass’d all others far;
She would me honey call,
She’d — O she’d kiss me too!
But now, alas! she’s left me,
15
Falero, lero, loo!
Many a merry meeting
My love and I have had;
She was my only sweeting,
She made my heart full glad;
20
The tears stood in her eyes
Like to the morning dew:
But now, alas! she’s left me,
Falero, lero, loo!
Her cheeks were like the cherry,
25
Her skin was white as snow;
When she was blithe and merry
She angel-like did show;
Her waist exceeding small,
The fives did fit her shoe:
30
But now, alas! she’s left me,
Falero, lero, loo!
In summer time or winter
She had her heart’s desire;
I still did scorn to stint her
35
From sugar, sack, or fire;
The world went round about,
No cares we ever knew:
But now, alas! she’s left me,
Falero, lero, loo!
40
To maidens’ vows and swearing
Henceforth no credit give;
You may give them the hearing,
But never them believe;
They are as false as fair,
45
Unconstant, frail, untrue:
For mine, alas! hath left me,
Falero, lero, loo!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
George Wither (1588–1667)
SHALL I, wasting in despair,
Die because a woman’s fair?
Or my cheeks make pale with care
‘Cause another’s rosy are?
Be she fairer than the day
5
Or the flowery meads in May —
If she be not so to me
What care I how fair she be?
Shall my foolish heart be pined
‘Cause I see a woman kind;
10
Or a well disposèd nature
Joinèd with a lovely feature?
Be she meeker, kinder, than
Turtle-dove or pelican,
If she be not so to me
15
What care I how kind she be?
Shall a woman’s virtues move
Me to perish for her love?
Or her merits’ value known
Make me quite forget mine own?
20
Be she with that goodness blest
Which may gain her name of Best;
If she seem not such to me,
What care I how good she be?
‘Cause her fortune seems too high,
25
Shall I play the fool and die?
Those that bear a noble mind
Where they want of riches find,
Think what with them they would do
Who without them dare to woo;
30
And unless that mind I see,
What care I how great she be?
Great or good, or kind or fair,
I will ne’er the more despair;
If she love me, this believe,
35
I will die ere she shall grieve;
If she slight me when I woo,
I can scorn and let her go;
For if she be not for me,
What care I for whom she be?
40
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
On the Countess Dowager of Pembroke
William Browne (1591–1643)
UNDERNEATH this sable herse
Lies the subject of all verse:
Sidney’s sister, Pembroke’s mother:
Death, ere thou hast slain another
Fair and learn’d and good as she,
5
Time shall throw a dart at thee.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
CHERRY-RIPE, ripe, ripe, I cry,
Full and fair ones; come and buy.
If so be you ask me where
They do grow, I answer: There
Where my Julia’s lips do smile;
5
There’s the land, or cherry-isle,
Whose plantations fully show
All the year where cherries grow.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
HERE a little child I stand
Heaving up my either hand;
Cold as paddocks though they be.
Here I lift them up to Thee,
For a benison to fall
5
On our meat and on us all. Amen.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
GOOD-MORROW to the day so fair,
Good-morning, sir, to you;
Good-morrow to mine own torn hair
Bedabbled with the dew.
Good-morning to this primrose too,
5
Good-morrow to each maid
That will with flowers the tomb bestrew
Wherein my love is laid.
Ah! woe is me, woe, woe is me!
Alack and well-a-day!
10
For pity, sir, find out that bee
Which bore my love away.
I’ll seek him in your bonnet brave,
I’ll seek him in your eyes;
Nay, now I think they’ve made his grave
15
I’ th’ bed of strawberries.
I’ll seek him there; I know ere this
The cold, cold earth doth shake him;
But I will go, or send a kiss
By you, sir, to awake him.
20
Pray hurt him not; though he be dead,
He knows well who do love him,
And who with green turfs rear his head,
And who do rudely move him.
He’s soft and tender (pray take heed);
25
With bands of cowslips bind him,
And bring him home — but ’tis decreed
That I shall never find him!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order