114

GO, HAPPY ROSE!

GO, HAPPY ROSE!

Go, happy Rose! and, interwove
With other flowers, bind my love!
Tell her, too, she must not be
Longer flowing, longer free,
That so oft hath fettered me.

Say, if she's fretful, I have bands
Of pearl and gold to bind her hands;
Tell her, if she struggle still,

I have myrtle rods at will,
For to tame, though not to kill.

Take then my blessing thus, and go,
And tell her this, but do not so!
Lest a handsome anger fly,
Like a lightning from her eye.
And burn thee up, as well as I.

R. Herrick.

THE ROSE'S MESSAGE.

115

THE ROSE'S MESSAGE.

Go, lovely Rose!

Tell her, that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,

When I resemble her to thee,

How sweet and fair she seems to be.

Tell her that's young
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung

In deserts, where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.

Small is the worth

Of beauty from the light retired:
Bid her come forth,

Suffer herself to be desired,

And not blush so to be admired.

Then die! that she

The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee:

How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!

Edmund Waller.

116

THE LOVER AND THE ROSE.

THE LOVER AND THE ROSE.

Go, rose! my Chloe's bosom grace!
How happy should I prove,
Might I supply that envied place
With never-fading love:

There, Phœnix-like, beneath her eye,
Involved in fragrance, burn and die!

Know, hapless flower, that thou shalt find
More fragrant roses there:

I see thy withering head reclined
With envy and despair.

One common fate we both must prove,—

You die with envy, I with love.

John Gay.

TO ALTHEA (FROM PRISON).

117

TO ALTHEA-(FROM PRISON).

WHEN Love with unconfinéd wings
Hovers within my gates,

And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair
And fetter'd to 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 confinéd, I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty
And glories of my King;
When I shall voice aloud how good
He is, how great should be,
Enlargéd winds, that curl the flood,
Know no such liberty.

118

BEAUTY CONCEALED.

Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage:
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.

Colonel Lovelace.

BEAUTY CONCEALED.

Do not conceal thy radiant eyes,
The starlight of serenest skies;
Lest, wanting of their heavenly light,
They turn to Chaos' endless night!

Do not conceal those tresses fair,
The silken snares of thy curl'd hair;
Lest, finding neither gold nor ore,
The curious silk-worm work no more!

Do not conceal those breasts of thine,
More snow-white than the Apennine;
Lest, if there be like snow and frost,
The lily be forever lost!

Do not conceal that fragrant scent,
Thy breath, which to all flowers hath lent
Perfumes; lest it being supprest,
No spices grow in all the East!