WILLIAM BROWN. SONG. SHALL I tell you whom I love ? Hearken then a while to me : As I now shall versifie, As she scorns the help of art ; As e'er yet embraced a heart; So much good, so truly tried, Some for less were deified. Wit she hath, without desire To make known how much she hath : And her anger flames no higher Than may fitly sweeten wrath. Reason masters every sense, And her virtues grace her birth; Lovely as all excellence, Modest in her most of mirth; Likelihood enough to prove Only worth could kindle love. Such she is; and if you know Such a one as I have sung, That she be but somewhile young; BEAUMONT and FLETCHER. SONG In the Nice Valour. HENCE all you vain delights, As short as are the nights But only melancholy, These are the sounds we feed upon. SONG In the Queen of Corinth. Sorrow recalls not time that's gone ; SONG In a Wife for a Month. And in sad legends write their woes; My war is without rage or blows; My mistress' eyes shine fair on my desires, And hope springs up inflam'd with her new fires. No more an exile will I dwell, With folded arms and sighs all day, And flinging my sweet joys away. or being blest with her sweet tongue, If these no other joys imply? A golden gyve, a pleasing wrong. To be your own but one poor month, I'd give My youth, my fortune, and then leave to live. adio CR WILLIAM DRUMMOND. SONNETS. To Sleep. SLEEP, silence' child, sweet father of soft rest, Prince,whose approach peace to all mortals brings, Indifferent host to shepherds and to kings; Sole comforter to minds with grief opprest. Lo! by thy charming rod all breathing things Lie slumbering with forgetfulness possest; And yet o'er me to spread thy drowsy wings Thou spares, alas! who cannot be thy guest. Since I am thine, oh ! come, but with that face, To inward light, which thou art wont to shew, With feigned solace ease a true felt woe; Or if, deaf god, thou do deny that grace, Come as thou will, and what thou wilt bequeathe, I long to kiss the image of my death. To his Lute. Mute, be as thou wast, when thou didst grow With thy green mother in some shady grove, When immelodious winds but made thee move, And birds on thee their ramage did bestow. Sith that dear voice which did thy sounds approve, Which used in such harmonious strains to flow, Is reft from earth to tune those spheres above, What art thou but a harbinger of woe ? But orphan wailings to the fainting ear, Each stop a sigh, each sound draws forth a tear; Be therefore silent as in woods before. Or that if any hand to touch thee deign, SONNETS. To the Nightingale. DEA EAR quirister, who from those shadows sends, Ere that the blushing morn dare shew her light, Such sad lamenting strains, that night attends (Become all ear), stars stay to hear thy plight; If one, whose grief even reach of thought transcends, Who ne'er, not in a dream, did taste delight, May thee importune, who like case pretends, And seems to joy in woe, in woe's despight; Tell me, (so may thou fortune milder try, And tong, long sing !) for what thou thus complains, Since winter's gone, and sun in dappled sky Enamoured smiles on woods aod flow'ry plains ? The bird, as if my questions did her move, THRICE happy he, who by some shady grove Far from the clamorous world doth live, his own; Though solitary, who is not alone, But doth converse with that eternal love. O how more sweet is birds' harmonious moan, Or the hoarse sobbings of the widow'd dove, Than those smooth whisperings near a prince's throne, Which good make doubtful, do the ill' approve! O how more sweet is zephyr's wholesome breath, And sighs embalm'd which new-born flow'rs unfold, Than that applause vain honour doth bequeath! How sweeter streams than poison drunk in gold! The world is full of horrors, troubles, slights;-) Woods harmless shades have only true delights. |