Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (105 page)

To the Virgins

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

GATHER ye rose-buds while ye may,
 
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
 
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious Lamp of Heaven, the Sun,
  
5
 
The higher he’s a-getting
The sooner will his race be run,
 
And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
 
When youth and blood are warmer;
  
10
But being spent, the worse, and worst
 
Times, still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time;
 
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
  
15
 
You may for ever tarry.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

To Dianeme

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

SWEET, be not proud of those two eyes
Which starlike sparkle in their skies;
Nor be you proud, that you can see
All hearts your captives; yours yet free:
Be you not proud of that rich hair
  
5
Which wantons with the lovesick air;
Whenas that ruby which you wear,
Sunk from the tip of your soft ear,
Will last to be a precious stone
When all your world of beauty’s gone.
  
10

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

A Sweet Disorder

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

A SWEET disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness: —
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distractión, —
An erring lace, which here and there
  
5
Enthrals the crimson stomacher, —
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbands to flow confusedly, —
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat, —
10
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility, —
Do more bewitch me, than when art
Is too precise in every part.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Whenas in Silks

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

WHENAS in silks my Julia goes
Then, then (methinks) how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free;
  
5
O how that glittering taketh me!

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

To Anthea who may Command Him Any Thing

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

BID me to live, and I will live
 
Thy Protestant to be:
Or bid me love, and I will give
 
A loving heart to thee.

A heart as soft, a heart as kind,
  
5
 
A heart as sound and free
As in the whole world thou canst find,
 
That heart I’ll give to thee.

Bid that heart stay, and it will stay,
 
To honour thy decree:
  
10
Or bid it languish quite away,
 
And ‘t shall do so for thee.

Bid me to weep, and I will weep
 
While I have eyes to see:
And having none, yet I will keep
  
15
 
A heart to weep for thee.

Bid me despair, and I’ll despair,
 
Under that cypress tree:
Or bid me die, and I will dare
 
E’en Death, to die for thee.
  
20

Thou art my life, my love, my heart,
 
The very eyes of me,
And hast command of every part,
 
To live and die for thee.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

To Daffodils

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

FAIR Daffodils, we weep to see
 
You haste away so soon:
As yet the early-rising Sun
 
Has not attain’d his noon.
   
Stay, stay,
  
5
 
Until the hasting day
   
Has run
 
But to the even-song;
And, having pray’d together, we
 
Will go with you along.
  
10

We have short time to stay, as you,
 
We have as short a Spring!
As quick a growth to meet decay
 
As you, or any thing.
   
We die,
  
15
 
As your hours do, and dry
 
  
Away
 
Like to the Summer’s rain;
Or as the pearls of morning’s dew
 
Ne’er to be found again.
  
20

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

To Blossoms

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

FAIR pledges of a fruitful tree,
 
Why do ye fall so fast?
 
Your date is not so past,
But you may stay yet here awhile
 
To blush and gently smile,
  
5
   
And go at last.

What, were ye born to be
 
An hour or half’s delight,
 
And so to bid good-night?
’Twas pity Nature brought ye forth
  
10
 
Merely to show your worth,
   
And lose you quite.

But you are lovely leaves, where we
 
May read how soon things have
 
Their end, though ne’er so brave:
  
15
And after they have shown their pride
 
Like you, awhile, they glide
   
Into the grave.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Corinna’s Maying

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

 
GET up, get up for shame! The blooming morn
 
Upon her wings presents the god unshorn.
 
See how Aurora throws her fair
 
Fresh-quilted colours through the air:
 
Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see
  
5
 
The dew-bespangling herb and tree!
Each flower has wept and bow’d toward the east,
Above an hour since, yet you not drest;
 
Nay! not so much as out of bed?
 
When all the birds have matins said,
  
10
 
And sung their thankful hymns, ’tis sin,
 
Nay, profanation, to keep in,
Whenas a thousand virgins on this day
Spring, sooner than the lark, to fetch in May.

Rise, and put on your foliage, and be seen
  
15
To come forth, like the spring-time, fresh and green,
 
And sweet as Flora. Take no care
 
For jewels for your gown or hair:
 
Fear not; the leaves will strew
 
Gems in abundance upon you:
  
20
Besides, the childhood of the day has kept,
Against you come, some orient pearls unwept.
 
Come, and receive them while the light
 
Hangs on the dew-locks of the night,
 
And Titan on the eastern hill
  
25
 
Retires himself, or else stands still
Till you come forth! Wash, dress, be brief in praying:
Few beads are best when once we go a-Maying.

Come, my Corinna, come; and coming, mark
How each field turns a street, each street a park,
  
30
 
Made green and trimm’d with trees! see how
 
Devotion gives each house a bough
 
Or branch! each porch, each door, ere this,
 
An ark, a tabernacle is,
Made up of white-thorn neatly interwove,
  
35
As if here were those cooler shades of love.
 
Can such delights be in the street
 
And open fields, and we not see ‘t?
 
Come, we’ll abroad: and let’s obey
 
The proclamation made for May,
  
40
And sin no more, as we have done, by staying
But, my Corinna, come, let’s go a-Maying.

There’s not a budding boy or girl this day
But is got up and gone to bring in May.
 
A deal of youth, ere this, is come
  
45
 
Back, and with white-thorn laden home.
 
Some have dispatch’d their cakes and cream,
 
Before that we have left to dream:
And some have wept and woo’d, and plighted troth,
And chose their priest, ere we can cast off sloth:
  
50
 
Many a green-gown has been given,
 
Many a kiss, both odd and even:
 
Many a glance, too, has been sent
 
From out the eye, love’s firmament:
Many a jest told of the keys betraying
  
55
This night, and locks pick’d: yet we’re not a-Maying.

Come, let us go, while we are in our prime,
And take the harmless folly of the time!
 
We shall grow old apace, and die
 
Before we know our liberty.
  
60
 
Our life is short, and our days run
 
As fast away as does the sun.
And, as a vapour or a drop of rain,
Once lost, can ne’er be found again,
 
So when or you or I are made
  
65
 
A fable, song, or fleeting shade,
 
All love, all liking, all delight
 
Lies drowned with us in endless night.
Then, while time serves, and we are but decaying,
Come, my Corinna, come, let’s go a-Maying.
  
70

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order