THAT

XCV

ON A GIRDLE

HAT which her slender waist confined
Shall now my joyful temples bind :
No monarch but would give his crown
His arms might do what this has done.

It was my Heaven's extremest sphere,
The pale which held that lovely deer :
My joy, my grief, my hope, my love
Did all within this circle move.

A narrow compass! and yet there
Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair:
Give me but what this ribband bound,
Take all the rest the Sun goes round.

E. Waller

XCVI

TO ANTHEA WHO MAY COMMAND HIM

ANYTHING

B Thy Protestant to be:

ID me to live, and I will live

Or bid me love, and I will give
A loving heart to thee.

A heart as soft, a heart as kind,
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 :

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
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.

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.

R. Herrick

L

XCVII

OVE not me for comely grace,
For my pleasing eye or face,

Nor for any outward part,

No, nor for my constant heart,
For those may fail, or turn to ill,
So thou and I shall sever :

Keep therefore a true woman's eye,
And love me still, but know not why-

So hast thou the same reason still

To doat upon me ever!

Anon.

XCVIII

Nor better than the rest ;
NOT

OT, Celia, that I juster am
Or

For I would change each hour, like them,
Were not my heart at rest.

But I am tied to very thee
By every thought I have ;
Thy face I only care to see,
Thy heart I only crave.

All that in woman is adored
In thy dear self I find -

For the whole sex can but afford
The handsome and the kind.

Why then should I seek further store,
And still make love anew?

When change itself can give no more,
'Tis easy to be true.

Sir C. Sedley

XCIX

TO ALTHEA FROM PRISON

WH

THEN 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,
Enlarged winds, that curl the flood,
Know no such liberty.

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.

Or that when I am gone

You or I were alone;

Then, my Lucasta, might I crave

Pity from blustering wind, or swallowing wave.

Though seas and land betwixt us both,

Our faith and troth,

Like separated souls,

All time and space controls: Above the highest sphere we meet Unseen, unknown, and greet as Angels greet.

So then we do anticipate
Our after-fate,

And are alive i' the skies,

If thus our lips and eyes
Can speak like spirits unconfined
In heaven, their earthy bodies left behind.

Colonel Lovelace

CI

ENCOURAGEMENTS TO A LOVER

WHY

HY so pale and wan, fond lover?
Prythee, why so pale?

Will, if looking well can't move her,

Looking ill prevail?

Prythee, why so pale