'Twixt kings and
subjects
there's this mighty odds:
Subjects are taught by men; kings by the gods.
Subjects are taught by men; kings by the gods.
Robert Herrick
22. TO ANTHEA.
If, dear Anthea, my hard fate it be
To live some few sad hours after thee,
Thy sacred corse with odours I will burn,
And with my laurel crown thy golden urn.
Then holding up there such religious things
As were, time past, thy holy filletings,
Near to thy reverend pitcher I will fall
Down dead for grief, and end my woes withal:
So three in one small plat of ground shall lie--
Anthea, Herrick, and his poetry.
23. THE WEEPING CHERRY.
I saw a cherry weep, and why?
Why wept it? but for shame
Because my Julia's lip was by,
And did out-red the same.
But, pretty fondling, let not fall
A tear at all for that:
Which rubies, corals, scarlets, all
For tincture wonder at.
24. SOFT MUSIC.
The mellow touch of music most doth wound
The soul when it doth rather sigh than sound.
25. THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT KINGS AND SUBJECTS.
'Twixt kings and subjects there's this mighty odds:
Subjects are taught by men; kings by the gods.
26. HIS ANSWER TO A QUESTION.
Some would know
Why I so
Long still do tarry,
And ask why
Here that I
Live and not marry.
Thus I those
Do oppose:
What man would be here
Slave to thrall,
If at all
He could live free here?
27. UPON JULIA'S FALL.
Julia was careless, and withal
She rather took than got a fall,
The wanton ambler chanc'd to see
Part of her legs' sincerity:
And ravish'd thus, it came to pass,
The nag (like to the prophet's ass)
Began to speak, and would have been
A-telling what rare sights he'd seen:
And had told all; but did refrain
Because his tongue was tied again.
28. EXPENSES EXHAUST.
Live with a thrifty, not a needy fate;
_Small shots paid often waste a vast estate_.
_Shots_, debts.
29. LOVE, WHAT IT IS.
Love is a circle that doth restless move
In the same sweet eternity of love.
30.