May no wolf howl, or screech owl stir
A wing about thy sepulchre !

No boisterous winds or storms come hither,
To starve or wither

Thy soft sweet earth; but, like a spring,
Love keep it ever flourishing.

May all shy maids, at wonted hours,

Come forth to strew thy tomb with flowers;
May virgins, when they come to mourn,
Male-incense burn

Upon thine altar; then return,

And leave thee sleeping in thy urn.

ODE TO ENDYMION PORTER.

Not all thy flushing suns are set,
Herrick, as yet;

Nor doth this far-drawn hemisphere
Frown and look sullen everywhere;
Days may conclude in nights, and suns may rest
As dead within the West,

Yet the next morn regild the fragrant East.

Alas! for me! that I have lost
E'en all, almost !

Sunk is my sight, set is my sun,

And all the loom of life undone;

The staff, the elm, the prop, the sheltering wall
Whereon my vine did crawl,

Now, now blown down; needs must the old stock fall.

Yet, Porter, while thou keep'st alive,
In death I thrive,

And like a Phoenix re-aspire

From out my nard and funeral fire, And as I prime my feathered youth, so I Do marvell how I could die

When I had thee, my chief preserver, by.

I'm up, I'm up, and bless that hand,
Which makes me stand

Now as I do, and, but for thee,

I must confess, I could not be ;
The debt is paid, for he who doth resign
Thanks to the generous Vine,

Invites fresh grapes to fill his press with wine.

WHAT LOVE IS.

Love is a circle, that doth restless move
In the same sweet eternity of Love.

UPON PREW HIS MAID.

In this little urn is laid

Prewdence Baldwin, once my maid,
From whose happy spark here let
Spring the purple violet.

THE WHITE ISLAND.

In this world, the Isle of Dreams,
While we sit by sorrow's streams,
Tears and terrors are our themes,
Reciting :

But when once from hence we fly,
More and more approaching nigh
Unto young eternity,

Uniting

In that whiter Island, where
Things are evermore sincere ;
Candour here, and lustre there,

Delighting :

There no monstrous fancies shall

Out of hell an horror call,

To create, or cause at all

Affrighting.

There, in calm and cooling sleep,
We our eyes shall never steep,
But eternal watch shall keep,
Attending

Pleasures such as shall pursue
Me immortalized, and you;
And fresh joys, as never too
Have ending.

MUSIC.

Charm me asleep, and melt me so
With thy delicious numbers,
That being ravish'd, hence I go
Away in easy slumbers.

Ease my sick head,

And make my bed,

Thou Power that canst sever

From me this ill;

And quickly still,

Though thou not kill

My fever.

Thou sweetly canst convert the same

From a consuming fire,

Into a gentle-licking flame,

And make it thus expire.

Then make me weep
My pains asleep,

And give me such reposes,

That I, poor I,

May think, thereby,

I live and die

'Mongst roses.

Fall on me like a silent dew,

Or like those maiden showers,

Which, by the peep of day, do strew A baptism o'er the flowers.

Melt, melt my pains
With thy soft strains;
That having ease me given,
With full delight,

I leave this light,
And take my flight

For Heaven.

OBERON'S FEAST.

Shapcot to thee the Fairy State
I with discretion dedicate:

Because thou prizest things that are
Curious and unfamiliar,

Take first the feast; these dishes gone,
We'll see the Fairy-court anon.

A little mushroom-table spread,
After short prayers, they set on bread,
A moon-parch'd grain of purest wheat,
With some small glitt'ring grit, to eat
His choice bits with; then in a trice
They make a feast less great than nice.
But all this while his eye is served,
We must not think his ear was sterved;
But that there was in place to stir
His spleen, the chirring grasshopper,
The merry cricket, puling fly,
The piping gnat for minstrelsy.
And now, we must imagine first,

The elves present, to quench his thirst,
A pure seed-pearl of infant dew,
Brought and besweeten'd in a blue
And pregnant violet; which done,
His kitling eyes begin to run

Quite through the table, where he spies
The horns of papery butterflies,

Of which he eats; and tastes a little

Of that we call the cuckoo's spittle;

A little fuz-ball pudding stands
By, yet not blessèd by his hands,

That was too coarse; but then forthwith
He ventures boldly on the pith

Of sugar'd rush, and eats the sagge
And well-bestrutted bees' sweet bag;
Gladding his palate with some store

Of emmet's eggs; what would he more?
But beards of mice, a newt's stew'd thigh,
A bloated earwig, and a fly;

With the red-capt worm, that's shut

Within the concave of a nut,

Brown as his tooth. A little moth,

Late fatten'd in a piece of cloth;

With wither'd cherries, mandrakes' ears,
Moles' eyes to these the slain stag's tears;
The unctuous dew-laps of a snail,
The broke-heart of a nightingale
O'ercome in music; with a wine

Ne'er ravish'd from the flattering vine,
But gently prest from the soft side
Of the most sweet and dainty bride,
Brought in a dainty daisy, which

He fully quaffs up, to bewitch

His blood to height; this done, commended Grace by his priest; The feast is ended.

TO PHILLIS.

Live, live with me, and thou shalt see
The pleasures I'll prepare for thee:
What sweets the country can afford
Shall bless thy bed, and bless thy board.
The soft sweet moss shall be thy bed,
With crawling woodbine over-spread :
By which the silver-shedding streams
Shall gently melt thee into dreams.
Thy clothing next, shall be a gown
Made of the fleeces' purest down.