Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (106 page)
Read Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) Online
Authors: Homer,William Shakespeare
Francis Quarles (1592–1644)
E’EN like two little bank-dividing brooks,
That wash the pebbles with their wanton streams,
And having ranged and search’d a thousand nooks,
Meet both at length in silver-breasted Thames,
Where in a greater current they conjoin:
5
So I my Best-belovèd’s am; so He is mine.
E’en so we met; and after long pursuit,
E’en so we joined; we both became entire;
No need for either to renew a suit,
For I was flax, and He was flames of fire:
10
Our firm-united souls did more than twine;
So I my Best-belovèd’s am; so He is mine.
If all those glittering Monarchs, that command
The servile quarters of this earthly ball,
Should tender in exchange their shares of land,
15
I would not change my fortunes for them all:
Their wealth is but a counter to my coin:
The world’s but theirs; but my Belovèd’s mine.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
George Herbert (1593–1633)
LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
5
If I lacked anything.
‘A guest,’ I answered, ‘worthy to be here:’
Love said, ‘You shall be he.’
‘I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee.’
10
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
‘Who made the eyes but I?’
‘Truth, Lord; but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.’
‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’
15
‘My dear, then I will serve.’
‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’
So I did sit and eat.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
George Herbert (1593–1633)
SWEET day, so cool, so calm, so bright!
The bridal of the earth and sky —
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night;
For thou must die.
Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave
5
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye,
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die.
Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie,
10
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.
Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like season’d timber, never gives;
But though the whole world turn to coal,
15
Then chiefly lives.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
George Herbert (1593–1633)
TEACH me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything
To do it as for Thee.
Not rudely, as a beast
5
To run into an action;
But still to make Thee prepossest
And give it his perfection.
A man that looks on glass
On it may stay his eye,
10
Or if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heaven espy.
All may of Thee partake
Nothing can be so mean
Which with his tincture, ‘for Thy sake,’
15
Will not grow bright and clean.
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine;
Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws,
Makes that and the action fine.
20
This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold,
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
George Herbert (1593–1633)
I STRUCK the board and cried, “No more;
I will abroad.
What, shall I ever sigh and pine?
My lines and life are free, free as the road,
Loose as the wind, as large as store.
5
Shall I be still in suit?
Have I no harvest but a thorn
To let me blood, and not restore
What I have lost with cordial fruit?
Sure there was wine
10
Before my sighs did dry it; there was corn
Before my tears did drown it.
Is the year only lost to me?
Have I no bays to crown it?
No flowers, no garlands gay? All blasted?
15
All wasted?
Not so, my heart; but there is fruit,
And thou hast hands.
Recover all thy sigh-blown age
On double pleasure: leave thy cold dispute
20
Of what is fit and not; forsake thy cage,
Thy rope of sands
Which petty thoughts have made, and made to thee
Good cable, to enforce and draw
And be thy law,
25
While thou didst wink and wouldst not see.
Away: take heed,
I will abroad.
Call in thy death’s head there: tie up thy fears.
He that forbears
30
To suit and serve his need
Deserves his load.”
But as I raved and grew more fierce and wild
At every word,
Methought I heard one calling
‘Child!’
35
And I replied,
‘My Lord!’
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
George Herbert (1593–1633)
HOW fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean
Are thy returns! Ev’n as the flowers in Spring,
To which, besides their own demean,
The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring;
Grief melts away
5
Like snow in May,
As if there were no such cold thing.
Who would have thought my shrivell’d heart
Could have recover’d greenness? It was gone
Quite under ground; as flowers depart
10
To see their mother-root, when they have blown,
Where they together
All the hard weather,
Dead to the world, keep house unknown.
These are Thy wonders, Lord of power,
15
Killing and quick’ning, bringing down to Hell
And up to Heaven in an hour;
Making a chiming of a passing bell.
We say amiss
This or that is;
20
Thy word is all, if we could spell.
O that I once past changing were,
Fast in thy Paradise where no flower can wither!
Many a Spring I shoot up fair,
Off’ring at Heaven, growing and groaning thither;
25
Nor doth my flower
Want a Spring shower,
My sins and I joining together.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
George Herbert (1593–1633)
I GOT me flowers to strew Thy way,
I got me boughs off many a tree;
But Thou wast up by break of day,
And brought’st Thy sweets along with Thee.
The sun arising in the East,
5
Though he give light and th’ East perfume,
If they should offer to contest
With Thy arising, they presume.
Can there be any day but this,
Though many suns to shine endeavour?
10
We count three hundred, but we miss:
There is but one, and that one ever.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
George Herbert (1593–1633)
WHEN God at first made Man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by —
Let us (said He) pour on him all we can;
Let the world’s riches, which dispersèd lie,
Contract into a span.
5
So strength first made a way,
Then beauty flow’d, then wisdom, honour, pleasure;
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that, alone of all His treasure,
Rest in the bottom lay.
10
For if I should (said He)
Bestow this jewel also on My creature,
He would adore My gifts instead of Me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:
So both should losers be.
15
Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness;
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to My breast.
20
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
