Thy mouth will make the sourest numbers please:
How will it drop pure honey speaking these!
How will it drop pure honey speaking these!
Robert Herrick
"
Soon after he for beer so scores his wheat,
That at the tide he has not bread to eat.
1087. PLEASURES PERNICIOUS.
Where pleasures rule a kingdom, never there
Is sober virtue seen to move her sphere.
1088. ON HIMSELF.
A wearied pilgrim, I have wandered here
Twice five-and-twenty, bate me but one year;
Long I have lasted in this world, 'tis true,
But yet those years that I have lived, but few.
Who by his grey hairs doth his lusters tell,
Lives not those years, but he that lives them well.
One man has reach'd his sixty years, but he
Of all those threescore, has not liv'd half three.
_He lives, who lives to virtue; men who cast
Their ends for pleasure, do not live, but last. _
_Luster_, five years.
1089. TO M. LAURENCE SWETNAHAM.
Read thou my lines, my Swetnaham; if there be
A fault, 'tis hid if it be voic'd by thee.
Thy mouth will make the sourest numbers please:
How will it drop pure honey speaking these!
1090. HIS COVENANT; OR, PROTESTATION TO JULIA.
Why dost thou wound and break my heart,
As if we should for ever part?
Hast thou not heard an oath from me,
After a day, or two, or three,
I would come back and live with thee?
Take, if thou dost distrust that vow,
This second protestation now.
Upon thy cheek that spangled tear,
Which sits as dew of roses there,
That tear shall scarce be dried before
I'll kiss the threshold of thy door.
Then weep not, sweet; but thus much know,
I'm half return'd before I go.
1091. ON HIMSELF.
I will no longer kiss,
I can no longer stay;
The way of all flesh is
That I must go this day.
Since longer I can't live,
My frolic youths, adieu;
My lamp to you I'll give,
And all my troubles too.
1092. TO THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED GENTLEMAN, M. MICHAEL OULSWORTH.
Nor think that thou in this my book art worst,
Because not plac'd here with the midst, or first.
Soon after he for beer so scores his wheat,
That at the tide he has not bread to eat.
1087. PLEASURES PERNICIOUS.
Where pleasures rule a kingdom, never there
Is sober virtue seen to move her sphere.
1088. ON HIMSELF.
A wearied pilgrim, I have wandered here
Twice five-and-twenty, bate me but one year;
Long I have lasted in this world, 'tis true,
But yet those years that I have lived, but few.
Who by his grey hairs doth his lusters tell,
Lives not those years, but he that lives them well.
One man has reach'd his sixty years, but he
Of all those threescore, has not liv'd half three.
_He lives, who lives to virtue; men who cast
Their ends for pleasure, do not live, but last. _
_Luster_, five years.
1089. TO M. LAURENCE SWETNAHAM.
Read thou my lines, my Swetnaham; if there be
A fault, 'tis hid if it be voic'd by thee.
Thy mouth will make the sourest numbers please:
How will it drop pure honey speaking these!
1090. HIS COVENANT; OR, PROTESTATION TO JULIA.
Why dost thou wound and break my heart,
As if we should for ever part?
Hast thou not heard an oath from me,
After a day, or two, or three,
I would come back and live with thee?
Take, if thou dost distrust that vow,
This second protestation now.
Upon thy cheek that spangled tear,
Which sits as dew of roses there,
That tear shall scarce be dried before
I'll kiss the threshold of thy door.
Then weep not, sweet; but thus much know,
I'm half return'd before I go.
1091. ON HIMSELF.
I will no longer kiss,
I can no longer stay;
The way of all flesh is
That I must go this day.
Since longer I can't live,
My frolic youths, adieu;
My lamp to you I'll give,
And all my troubles too.
1092. TO THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED GENTLEMAN, M. MICHAEL OULSWORTH.
Nor think that thou in this my book art worst,
Because not plac'd here with the midst, or first.
