Or ever mark'd the pretty beam
A strawberry shows half-drown'd in cream?
A strawberry shows half-drown'd in cream?
Robert Herrick
EMPIRES.
Empires of kings are now, and ever were,
As Sallust saith, coincident to fear.
431. FELICITY QUICK OF FLIGHT.
Every time seems short to be
That's measured by felicity;
But one half-hour that's made up here
With grief, seems longer than a year.
436. THE CROWD AND COMPANY.
In holy meetings there a man may be
One of the crowd, not of the company.
438. POLICY IN PRINCES.
That princes may possess a surer seat,
'Tis fit they make no one with them too great.
440. UPON THE NIPPLES OF JULIA'S BREAST.
Have ye beheld (with much delight)
A red rose peeping through a white?
Or else a cherry, double grac'd,
Within a lily centre plac'd?
Or ever mark'd the pretty beam
A strawberry shows half-drown'd in cream?
Or seen rich rubies blushing through
A pure smooth pearl and orient too?
So like to this, nay all the rest,
Is each neat niplet of her breast.
441. TO DAISIES, NOT TO SHUT SO SOON.
Shut not so soon; the dull-ey'd night
Has not as yet begun
To make a seizure on the light,
Or to seal up the sun.
No marigolds yet closed are,
No shadows great appear;
Nor doth the early shepherd's star
Shine like a spangle here.
Stay but till my Julia close
Her life-begetting eye,
And let the whole world then dispose
Itself to live or die.
442. TO THE LITTLE SPINNERS.
Ye pretty housewives, would ye know
The work that I would put ye to?
This, this it should be: for to spin
A lawn for me, so fine and thin
As it might serve me for my skin.
For cruel Love has me so whipp'd
That of my skin I all am stripp'd:
And shall despair that any art
Can ease the rawness or the smart,
Unless you skin again each part.
Which mercy if you will but do,
I call all maids to witness to
What here I promise: that no broom
Shall now or ever after come
To wrong a spinner or her loom.
_Spinners_, spiders.
443.
Empires of kings are now, and ever were,
As Sallust saith, coincident to fear.
431. FELICITY QUICK OF FLIGHT.
Every time seems short to be
That's measured by felicity;
But one half-hour that's made up here
With grief, seems longer than a year.
436. THE CROWD AND COMPANY.
In holy meetings there a man may be
One of the crowd, not of the company.
438. POLICY IN PRINCES.
That princes may possess a surer seat,
'Tis fit they make no one with them too great.
440. UPON THE NIPPLES OF JULIA'S BREAST.
Have ye beheld (with much delight)
A red rose peeping through a white?
Or else a cherry, double grac'd,
Within a lily centre plac'd?
Or ever mark'd the pretty beam
A strawberry shows half-drown'd in cream?
Or seen rich rubies blushing through
A pure smooth pearl and orient too?
So like to this, nay all the rest,
Is each neat niplet of her breast.
441. TO DAISIES, NOT TO SHUT SO SOON.
Shut not so soon; the dull-ey'd night
Has not as yet begun
To make a seizure on the light,
Or to seal up the sun.
No marigolds yet closed are,
No shadows great appear;
Nor doth the early shepherd's star
Shine like a spangle here.
Stay but till my Julia close
Her life-begetting eye,
And let the whole world then dispose
Itself to live or die.
442. TO THE LITTLE SPINNERS.
Ye pretty housewives, would ye know
The work that I would put ye to?
This, this it should be: for to spin
A lawn for me, so fine and thin
As it might serve me for my skin.
For cruel Love has me so whipp'd
That of my skin I all am stripp'd:
And shall despair that any art
Can ease the rawness or the smart,
Unless you skin again each part.
Which mercy if you will but do,
I call all maids to witness to
What here I promise: that no broom
Shall now or ever after come
To wrong a spinner or her loom.
_Spinners_, spiders.
443.
