Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

RICHARD LOVELACE.

SONNET.

WHEN love, with unconfined wings,

Hovers within my gates;

And my divine Althea brings

To whisper at my grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair,
And fetter'd with her eye,
The birds that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty."

When flowing cups run swiftly round,
With no allaying Thames,

Our careless heads with roses crown'd,
Our hearts with loyal flames;

When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free,

Fishes, that tipple in the deep,
Know no such liberty.

When linnet like confined, I

With shriller note shall sing,

The mercy, sweetness, majesty
And glories of my king:

When I shall voice aloud how good
He is, how great should be,

Th' enlarged winds that curl the flood
Know no such liberty.

Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage,
Minds innocent and quiet take

That for a hermitage.

If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty.

SONG.

WHY dost thou say I am forsworn,

Since thine I vow'd to be?

Lady, it is already morn;

It was last night I swore to thee
That fond impossibility.

Yet have I lov'd thee well, and long;
A tedious twelve-hours' space!
I should all other beauties wrong,
And rob thee of a new embrace,
Did I still doat upon that face.

SONG.

AMARANTHA, sweet and fair,

Ah! braid no more that shining hair; As my curious hand or eye Hovering round thee, let it fly.

Let it fly as unconfin'd

As its calm ravisher the wind;
Who hath left his darling east
To wanton o'er that spicy nest.
Every tress, must be confest,
But neatly tangled at the best;
Like a clew of golden thread,
Most excellently ravelled.

Do not then bind up that light
In ribands, and o'ercloud in night,
But, like the sun in's early ray,
Shake your head, and scatter day!

E. SHERBURNE.

EXTRACT

From the Sun-rise; a Poem.

THOU youthful goddess of the morn,
Whose blush they in the east adore,
Daughter of Phœbus, who before
Thy all-enlightening sire art born!
Haste, and restore the day to me,
That my love's beauteous object I may see.

Too much of time the night devours,
The cock's shrill voice calls thee again,
Then quickly mount thy golden wain,
Drawn by the softly-sliding hours,
And make apparent to all eyes

With what enamel thou dost paint the skies.

Ah, now I see the sweetest dawn!
Thrice welcome to my longing sight!
Hail, divine beauty, heavenly light;
I see thee through yon cloud of lawn
Appear, and as thy star does glide,
Blanching with rays the east on every side.

Dull silence, and the drowsy king
Of sad and melancholy dreams,
Now fly before thy cheerful beams,
The darkest shadows vanquishing :
The owl, that all the night did keep
A hooting, now is fled and gone to sleep.

But all those little birds, whose notes
Sweetly the listening ear enthral,
To the clear water's murmuring fall
Accord their disagreeing throats:
The lustre of that greater star
Praising, to which thou art but harbinger.

With holy reverence inspir'd,
When brst the day renews its light,
The earth, at so divine à sight,
Seems, as if all one altar fir'd,
Reeking with perfumes to the skies,
Which she presents, her native sacrifice.

The humble shepherd, to his rays
Having his humble homage paid,
And to some cool retired shade
Driven his bleating flocks to graze,
Sits down, delighted with the sight
Of that great lamp, so mild, so fair, so bright.
The bee, through flow'ry gardens goes
Buzzing, to drink the morning's tears,
And from the early lily bears

A kiss commended to the rose,
And, like a wary messenger,

Whispers some amorous story in her ear.
&c. &c. &c.

The remainder of this poem would now be thought forced and unnatural.

SIR ROBERT HOWARD.

SONG

To the inconstant Cynthia.

N thy fair breast, and once fair soul,

I thought my vows were writ alone: But others' oaths so blurred the scroll, That I no more could read my own. And am I still oblig'd to pay

When you had thrown the bond away?

Nor must we only part in joy,

Our tears as well must be unkind; Weep you, that could such truth destroy, And I that did such falseness find.

Thus we must unconcern'd remain

In our divided joys and pain.

Yet we may love, but on this different score, You what I am, I what you were before.

THE RESOLUTION.

No, Cynthia, never think I can

Love a divided heart and mind;
Your sunshine love to every man,
Appears alike as great as kind.

None but the duller Persians kneel,
And the bright god of beams implore;
Whilst others equal influence feel,
That never did the god adore.

Though I resolve to love no more,

Since I did once, I will advise : The love of conquests now give o'er; Disquiets wait on victories.

« AnteriorContinuar »