The garlands wither on your brow; Then boast no more your mighty deeds; Upon Death's purple altar now
See where the victor-victim bleeds: Your heads must come
To the cold tomb;
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet, and blossom in their dust.
THE LAST CONQUEROR
VICTORIOUS men of earth, no more Proclaim how wide your empires are; Though you bind-in every shore And your triumphs reach as far As night or day,
Yet you, proud monarchs, must obey And mingle with forgotten ashes, when Death calls ye to the crowd of common men.
Devouring Famine, Plague, and War, Each able to undo mankind, Death's servile emissaries are; Nor to these alone confined, He hath at will
More quaint and subtle ways to kill; A smile or kiss, as he will use the art, Shall have the cunning skill to break a heart.
THOMAS CAREW
[1595 (?)-1639 (?)]
THE TRUE BEAUTY
HE 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.
Ask me no more where Jove bestows, When June is past, the fading rose; For in your beauty's orient deep These flowers, as in their causes, sleep.
Ask me no more whither do stray The golden atoms of the day; For in pure love heaven did prepare Those powders to enrich your hair.
Ask me no more whither doth haste The nightingale when May is past; For in your sweet dividing throat She winters and keeps warm her note.
Ask me no more where those stars 'light That downwards fall in dead of night; For in your eyes they sit, and there Fixed become as in their sphere.
Ask me no more if east or west The Phoenix builds her spicy nest; For unto you at last she flies, And in your fragrant bosom dies.
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 exhaled thy name, And with it imped 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 borrowed sphere Lightning on him that fixed thee there.
Tempt me with such affrights no more, Lest what I made I uncreate; Let fools thy mystic forms adore,
I know thee in thy mortal state:
Wise poets, that wrapt Truth in tales, Knew her themselves through all her veils.
GIVE ME MORE LOVE
GIVE me more love, or more disdain; The torrid or the frozen zone Bring equal ease unto my pain;
The temperate affords me none: Either extreme, of love or hate, Is sweeter than a calm estate.
Give me a storm; if it be love
Like Danaë in that golden shower, I'll swim in pleasure; if it prove
Disdain, that torrent will devour My vulture hopes; and he's possessed Of heaven, that's from hell released. Then crown my joys, or cure my pain; Give me more love, or more disdain.
SIR JOHN SUCKLING [1609-1642]
THE CONSTANT LOVER
OUT upon it, I have loved Three whole days together! And am like to love three more, If it prove fair weather.
Time shall moult away his wings Ere he shall discover
In the whole wide world again Such a constant lover.
But the spite on 't is, no praise Is due at all to me:
Love with me had made no stays,
Had it any been but she.
Had it any been but she,
And that very face,
There had been at least ere this A dozen dozen in her place.
WHY SO PALE AND WAN
WHY SO pale and wan, fond lover? Prythee, why so pale?
Will, if looking well can't move her,
Looking ill prevail?
Prythee, why so pale?
Why so dull and mute, young sinner? Prythee, why so mute?
Will, when speaking well can't win her, Saying nothing do't?
Prythee, why so mute?
Quit, quit, for shame! this will not move, This cannot take her;
If of herself she will not love, Nothing can make her: The D-1 take her!
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!
TO LUCASTA, ON GOING TO THE WARS
TELL me not, Sweet, I am unkind That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind, To war and arms I fly.
True, a new mistress now I chase, The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace A sword, a horse, a shield.
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