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XXXIII

SONNET.

Look how the flower which lingeringly doth fade,
The morning's darling late, the summer's queen,
Spoiled of that juice which kept it fresh and green,
As high as it did raise, bows low the head:
Right so my life, contentments being dead,
Or in their contraries but only seen,

With swifter speed declines than erst it spread,
And, blasted, scarce now shows what it hath been.
As doth the pilgrim therefore, whom the night
Hastes darkly to imprison on his way,

Think on thy home, my soul, and think aright
Of what yet rests thee of life's wasting day;
Thy sun posts westward, passèd is thy morn,
And twice it is not given thee to be born.

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William Drummond.

XXXIV
SONNET.

Alexis, here she stayed; among these pines,

Sweet hermitress, she did alone repair;

Here did she spread the treasure of her hair,

More rich than that brought from the Colchian mines.

She sat her by these muskèd eglantines,

The happy place the print seems yet to bear;

Her voice did sweeten here thy sugared lines,

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To which winds, trees, beasts, birds did lend an ear.
Me here she first perceived, and here a morn
Of bright carnations did o'erspread her face:
Here did she sigh, here first my hopes were born,
Here first I got a pledge of promised grace:
But ah! what served it to be happy so?
Sith passed pleasures double but new woe?

William Drummond.

XXXV

SONNET.

Sweet spring, thou turn'st with all thy goodly train, Thy head with flames, thy mantle bright with flowers; The zephyrs curl the green locks of the plain,

The clouds for joy in pearls weep down their showers, Thou turn'st, sweet youth; but ah! my pleasant hours 5 And happy days with thee come not again;

The sad memorials only of my pain

Do with thee come, which turn my sweets to sours.
Thou art the same which still thou wast before,
Delicious, lusty, amiable, fair;

But she, whose breath embalmed thy wholesome air,
Is gone; nor gold nor gems her can restore.
Neglected Virtue! seasons go and come,
When thine, forgot, lie closed in a tomb.

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William Drummond.

XXXVI

SONNET.

Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part-
Nay, I have done, you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free;
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.

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ΤΟ

Now at the last gasp of love's latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,—
Now if thou would'st, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou might'st him yet recover!
Michael Drayton.

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Come, Sleep, and with thy sweet deceiving
Lock me in delight awhile;

Let some pleasing dreams beguile
All my fancies; that from thence

I may feel an influence,

All my powers of care bereaving!

Though but a shadow, but a sliding,
Let me know some little joy!
We that suffer long annoy
Are contented with a thought,
Through an idle fancy wrought:
Oh, let my joys have some abiding!

Beaumont and Fletcher.

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THE SHEPHERD'S PRAISE OF HIS SACRED DIANA.

Praised be Diana's fair and harmless light,

Praised be the dews, wherewith she moists the ground: Praised be her beams, the glory of the night,

Praised be her power, by which all powers abound.

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Praised be her nymphs, with whom she decks the woods,
Praised be her knights, in whom true honour lives:
Praised be that force by which she moves the floods,
Let that Diana shine which all these gives.

In heaven Queen she is among the spheres,

She, mistress like, makes all things to be pure; Eternity in her oft change she bears,

She beauty is, by her the fair endure.

Time wears her not, she doth his chariot guide,
Mortality below her orb is placed;

By her the virtue of the stars down slide,
In her is Virtue's perfect image cast.
A knowledge pure it is her worth to know:
With Circe let them dwell that think not so.

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Anon.

XLI

TRUE GROWTH.

It is not growing like a tree

In bulk, doth make men better be;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere.
A lily of a day

Is fairer far in May,

Although it fall and die that night;

It was the plant and flower of light.
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.

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Ben Jonson.

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