No More Learning

HOW ROSES CAME RED.

'Tis said, as Cupid danc'd among
The gods he down the nectar flung,
Which on the white rose being shed
Made it for ever after red.


707. KINGS.

Men are not born kings, but are men renown'd;
Chose first, confirm'd next, and at last are crown'd.


708. FIRST WORK, AND THEN WAGES.

Preposterous is that order, when we run
To ask our wages ere our work be done.

_Preposterous_, lit. hind part before.


709. TEARS AND LAUGHTER.

Knew'st thou one month would take thy life away,
Thou'dst weep; but laugh, should it not last a day.


710. GLORY.
Glory no other thing is, Tully says,
Than a man's frequent fame spoke out with praise.


711. POSSESSIONS.

Those possessions short-liv'd are,
Into the which we come by war.


713. HIS RETURN TO LONDON.

From the dull confines of the drooping West
To see the day spring from the pregnant East,
Ravish'd in spirit I come, nay, more, I fly
To thee, bless'd place of my nativity!
Thus, thus with hallowed foot I touch the ground,
With thousand blessings by thy fortune crown'd.
O fruitful Genius! that bestowest here
An everlasting plenty, year by year.
O place! O people! Manners! fram'd to please
All nations, customs, kindreds, languages!
I am a free-born Roman; suffer, then,
That I amongst you live a citizen.
London my home is: though by hard fate sent
Into a long and irksome banishment;
Yet since call'd back; henceforward let me be,
O native country, repossess'd by thee!