No More Learning

O times most bad,
Without the scope
Of hope
Of better to be had!

Where shall I go,
Or whither run
To shun
This public overthrow?

No places are,
This I am sure,
Secure
In this our wasting war.

Some storms we've past,
Yet we must all
Down fall,
And perish at the last.


597. CRUELTY BASE IN COMMANDERS.

Nothing can be more loathsome than to see
Power conjoin'd with Nature's cruelty.


599. UPON LUCIA.

I ask'd my Lucia but a kiss,
And she with scorn denied me this;
Say then, how ill should I have sped,
Had I then ask'd her maidenhead?


600. LITTLE AND LOUD.

Little you are, for woman's sake be proud;
For my sake next, though little, be not loud.


601. SHIPWRECK.
He who has suffered shipwreck fears to sail
Upon the seas, though with a gentle gale.


602. PAINS WITHOUT PROFIT.

A long life's-day I've taken pains
For very little, or no gains;
The evening's come, here now I'll stop,
And work no more, but shut up shop.


603. TO HIS BOOK.

Be bold, my book, nor be abash'd, or fear
The cutting thumb-nail or the brow severe;
But by the Muses swear all here is good
If but well read, or, ill read, understood.


604. HIS PRAYER TO BEN JONSON.

When I a verse shall make,
Know I have pray'd thee,
For old religion's sake,
Saint Ben, to aid me.

Make the way smooth for me,
When I, thy Herrick,
Honouring thee, on my knee
Offer my lyric.

Candles I'll give to thee,
And a new altar,
And thou, Saint Ben, shall be
Writ in my Psalter.


605. POVERTY AND RICHES.

Give Want her welcome if she comes; we find
Riches to be but burdens to the mind.


606.