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THE UNDERTAKING.

I HAVE done one braver thing
Than all the Worthies did,

And yet a braver thence doth spring,
Which is, to kep that hid.

It were but madness now t' impart

The skill of specular stone,

When he which can have learn'd the art

To cut it can find none.

So if I now should utter this,

Others (because no more

Such stuff to work upon there is)
Would love but as before.

But he who loveliness within
Hath found, all outward loathes;
For he who colour loves and skin,
Loves but their oldest clothes.

If, as I have, you also do

Virtue in woman see,

And dare love that, and say so too,
And forget the he and she;

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And if this love, tho' placed so,

From prophane men you hide,
Which will no faith on this bestow,
Or if they do deride:

Then you have done a braver thing
Than all the Worthies did,

And a braver thence will spring,
Which is, to keep that hid.

THE SUN RISING.

Busy old fool! unruly Sun!

Why dost thou thus

Thro' windows and thro' curtains look on us?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?

Sawcy pedantic Wretch! go, chide

Late school-boys, or sowre 'prentices;

Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride;
Call country ants to harvest offices;

Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,

Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time. 10

Thy beams so reverend and strong,

Dost thou not think

I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long?

If her eyes have not blinded thine,
Look, and to-morrow late tell me,
Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine

Be where thou left them, or lie here with me :
Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear, All here it one bed lay.

She 's all states, and all princes I,
Nothing else is:

Princes do but play us; compar'd to this
All honour 's mimic, all wealth alchymy.
Thou, Sun! art half as happy' as we

In that the world 's contracted thus:

Thine age asks ease; and since thy duties be
To warm the world, that 's done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art every where;
This bed thy centre is, these walls thy sphere.

THE INDIFFERENT.

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Her whom abundance m elts, 'and her whom want Her who loves loneness best, and her who sports and

plays;

Her whom the country form'd, and whom the town:

Her who believes, and her who tries;

Her who still weeps with spungy eyes,

And her who is dry cork, and never cries:

If thou find'st one let me know,

Such a pilgrimage were sweet;

Yet do not; I would not go,

Tho' at next door we might meet.

Tho' she were true when you met her,
And last till you write your letter,

Yet she

Will be

False ere I come to two or three.

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WOMAN'S CONSTANCY.

Now thou hast lov'd me one whole day,

To-morrow when thou leav'st what wilt thou say?
Wilt thou then antedate some new-made vow?
Or say that now

We are not just those persons which we were?

Or that oaths, made in reverential fear

Of love and his wrath, any may forswear?

Or, as true deaths true marriages untie,

So lovers' contracts, images of those,

Bind but till Sleep, Death's image, them unloose? 10 Or, your own end to justify

For having purpos'd change and falsehood, you

Can have no way but falsehood to be true?

Vain lunatic! against these scapes I could
Dispute and conquer, if I would;

Which I abstain to do,

For by to-morrow I may think so too.

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THE UNDERTAKING.

I HAVE done one braver thing
Than all the Worthies did,

And yet a braver thence doth spring,
Which is, to kep that hid.

It were but madness now t'impart

The skill of specular stone,

When he which can have learn'd the art

To cut it can find none.

So if I now should utter this,

Others (because no more

Such stuff to work upon there is)

Would love but as before.

But he who loveliness within
Hath found, all outward loathes;
For he who colour loves and skin,
Loves but their oldest clothes.

If, as I have, you also do

Virtue in woman see,

And dare love that, and say so too,

And forget the he and she;

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