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230

231

EPIMENIDES

HE went into the woods a laughing boy;

each flower was in his heart; the happy bird flitting across the morning sun, or heard from way-side thicket, was to him a joy: the water-springs, that in their moist. employ leapt from their banks, with many an inward word spoke to his soul and every leaf that stirred. found notice from his quickly-glancing eye.— There wondrous sleep fell on him: many a year his lids were closed: youth left him and he woke a careful noter of men's ways; of clear

and lofty spirit: sages when he spoke

forgot their systems; and the worldly-wise
shrunk from the gaze of truth with baffled eyes.

PVLVIS ET VMBRA SVMVS

O peaceful rests, without a stone, a name,
fame!

how loved-how honoured once avails thee not,
to whom related, or by whom begot;
a heap of dust alone remains of thee-
'tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!
Poets themselves must fall like those they sung,
deaf the praised ear and mute the tuneful tongue;
even he whose soul now melts in mournful lays
shall shortly want the generous tear he pays;
then from his closing eyes thy form shall part
and the last pang shall tear thee from his heart;
life's idle business at one gasp be o'er,

the muse forgot and thou beloved no more!

THE OMNIPRESENCE OF LOVE

Ture with his arrows wounds mine eyes;
URN I my looks unto the skies,

love

if so I look upon the ground,
love then in every flower is found;
search I the shade to flee my pain,
love meets me in the shades again;

A. POPE

want I to walk in secret grove,
e'en there I meet with sacred love;
if so I bathe me in the spring,
e'en on the brink I hear him sing;
if so I meditate alone,

he will be partner of my moan;
if so I mourn, he weeps with me,
and where I am, there will he be.

T. LODGE

232 DESCRIPTION OF SPRING, WHERIN Eche thing

RENEWES SAUE ONELY THE LOVER

THE

'HE soote season, that bud and blome forth brings, with grene hath clad the hill and eke the vale; the nightingale with fethers new she sings;

the turtle to her make hath told her tale,

somer is come, for euery spray now springs:
the hart hath hong his old head on the pale;
the buck in brake his winter coate he flings:
the fishes flete with new repairéd scale:
the adder all her slough away she flings,
the swift swalow pursueth the flies smale:
the busy bee her hony now she mings,
winter is worne that was the flowers bale.

And thus I se among these pleasant things
eche care decayes; and yet my sorow springs.

LORD SURREY

233

A VOW TO LOUE FAITHFULLY HOWSOEUER
HE BE REWARDED

SET me we his beames do not dissolue the yse:

ET me whereas the sunne doth parche the grene,

in temperate heate where he is felt and sene:
in presence prest of people madde or wise;
set me in hye or yet in low degree;
in longest night or in the shortest daye:
in clearest skie or where cloudes thickest be;
in lusty youth or when my heeres are graye:

set me in heauen, in earth or els in hell,
in hyll or dale or in the foming flood,
thrall or at large, aliue whereso I dwell,
sick or in health, in euill fame or good,
hers will I be, and onely with this thought
content my self, although my chance be nought.

LORD SURREY

234 verses outlive the bravest deeds of men OR deedes doe die, how ever noblie donne,

but wise wordes, taught in numbers for to runne,
recorded by the Muses, live for ay;

ne may with storming showers be washt away,
ne bitter breathing windes with harmfull blast,
nor age nor envie shall them ever wast.

In vaine doo earthly Princes then, in vaine,
seeke with pyramides to heaven aspired,
or huge colosses built with costlie paine,
or brasen pillours never to be fired,

or shrines made of the mettall most desired,
to make their memories for ever live:
for how can mortall immortalitie give?

E. SPENSER

235

VERSE MAKES BEAUTY ETERNAL

NE day I wrote her name upon the strand;

ONE I wrote her hand washed it away,

agayne I wrote it with a second hand;

but came the tyde and made my paynes his pray. ‘Vayne man' sayd she 'that doest in vaine assay a mortall thing so to immortalize;

for I my selfe shall lyke to this decay,

and eek my name bee wiped out lykewize.'

'Not so' quod I 'let baser things devize

to dy in dust, but you shall live by fame:

my verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
and in the hevens wryte your glorious name;
where, whenas death shall all the world subdew,
our love shall live and later life renew.'

E. SPENSER

236

LYK

SONNET

YKE as a ship that through the Ocean wyde
by conduct of some star doth make her way,
whenas a storm hath dimd her trusty guyde,
out of her course doth wander far astray:

so I, whose star that wont with her bright ray
me to direct with cloudes is over-cast,
doe wander now, in darknesse and dismay,
through hidden perils round about me plast;
yet hope I well that, when this storme is past,
my Helice, the lode-star of my lyfe,
will shine again and looke on me at last,
with lovely light to cleare my cloudy grief:
till then I wander carefull, comfortlesse,
in secret sorrow and sad pensivenesse.

E. SPENSER

237

SONNET

238

S it her nature, or is it her will

if nature, then she may it mend with skill;
if will, then she at will may will foregoe;

but if her nature and her will be so

that she will plague the man that loves her most,
and take delight t' encrease a wretch's woe,
then all her nature's goodly gifts are lost;

and that same glorious beauty's idle boast
is but a bait such wretches to beguile,
as being long in her love's tempest tost,
she means at last to make her piteous spoil.

O fairest Fair, let never it be named
that so fair beauty was so foully shamed!

TO THE SPRING

E. SPENSER

`RESH Spring, the herald of loves mighty king,

FRESH armour richly are displayd

all sorts of flowres, the which on earth do spring in goodly colours gloriously arrayd,

239

240

goe to my love where she is carelesse layd
yet in her winters bowre, not well awake;
tell her the joyous time will not be staid
unlesse she doe him by the forelocke take;
bid her therefore herself soone ready make,
to wayt on love amongst his lovely crew;
where every one, that misseth then her make,
shall be by him amearst with penance dew.

Make hast therefore, sweet love, whilst it is prime;
for none can call againe the passéd time.

TH

LIFE'S DECAY

E. SPENSER

HAT time of year thou mayst in me behold when yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang upon those boughs which shake against the cold, bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang: in me thou see'st the twilight of such day

as after sunset fadeth in the west,

which by and by black night doth take away,
death's second self, that seals up all in rest:

in me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
that on the ashes of his youth doth lie
as the death-bed whereon it must expire,
consumed with that which it was nourish'd by:-

this thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
to love that well which thou must leave ere long.

W. SHAKESPEARE

AMOR CONTRA MVNDVM

NOT me wide world dreaming on things to come

OT mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul

can yet the lease of my true love control,
supposed as forfeit to a confined doom.

The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured,
and the sad augurs mock their own presage;
incertainties now crown themselves assured,
and peace proclaims olives of endless age.
Now with the drops of this most balmy time
my love looks fresh, and Death to me subscribes,