To bear me harmless through the hardest things; And where love lends the wing, and leads the way, What dangers can there be dare say me nay? If I be shipwreck'd, love shall teach to swim; If drown'd, sweet is the death endured for him; The noted sea shall change his name with me, I'mongst the blest stars a new name shall be; And sure where lovers make their wat'ry graves The weeping mariner will augment the waves. For who so hard, but, passing by that way, Will take acquaintance of my woes, and say, Here't was the Roman maid found a hard fate, While through the world she sought her wand'ring mate; Here perish'd she, poor heart! heav'ns, be my vows As true to me as she was to her spouse ! O, live so rare a love! live! and in thee The too frail life of female constancy.
Farewell, and shine, fair soul, shine there above, Firm in thy crown as here fast in thy love. There thy lost fugitive thou hast found at last; Be happy, and for ever hold him fast!
HOUGH all the joys I had fled hence with thee, Unkind! yet are my tears still true to me; I'm wedded o'er again since thou art gone, Nor could'st thou, cruel, leave me quite alone.
Alexis's widow now is Sorrow's wife, With him shall I weep out my weary life. Welcome, my sad, sweet mate! now have I got At last a constant love that leaves me not: Firm he, as thou art false, nor need my cries Thus vex the earth, and tear the [lofty] skies. For him, alas! ne'er shall I need to be Troublesome to the world, thus, as for thee, For thee I talk to trees; with silent groves Expostulate my woes and much-wrong'd loves. Hills and relentless rocks, or if there be Things that in hardness more allude to thee; To these I talk in tears, and tell my pain, And answer, too, for them in tears again. How oft have I wept out the weary sun! My wat'ry hour-glass hath old time outrun. O, I am learned grown, poor love and I Have studied over all astrology.
I'm perfect in heav'n's state, with every star My skilful grief is grown familiar.
Rise, fairest of those fires, whate'er thou be Whose rosy beam shall point my sun to me; Such as the sacred light that erst did bring The eastern princes to their infant King. O rise, pure lamp! and lend thy golden ray That weary love at last may find his way.
MICH, churlish land! that hid'st so long in thee, My treasures, rich, alas! by robbing me. Needs must my miseries owe that man a spite Whoe'er he be was the first wand'ring knight.
O, had he ne'er been at that cruel cost Nature's virginity had ne'er been lost.
Seas had not been rebuked by saucy oars,
But lain lock'd up safe in their sacred shores;
Men had not spurn'd at mountains, nor made wars
With rocks; nor bold hands struck the world's strong bars;
Nor lost in too large bounds, our little Rome
Full sweetly with itself had dwelt at home. My poor Alexis then in peaceful life
Had under some low roof loved his plain wife; But now, ah me! from where he has no foes He flies, and into wilful exile goes. Cruel, return; or tell the reason why Thy dearest parents have deserved to die; And I, what is my crime I cannot tell, Unless it be a crime t'have loved too well. If heats of holier love and high desire Make big thy fair breast with immortal fire, What needs my virgin lord fly thus from me, Who only wish his virgin wife to be?
Witness, chaste heav'ns! no happier vows I know Than to a virgin grave untouch'd to go.
Love's truest knot by Venus is not tied, Nor do embraces only make a bride.
The queen of angels, and men chaste as you, Was maiden wife, and maiden mother too. Cecilia, glory of her name and blood,
With happy gain her maiden vows made good.
The lusty bridegroom made approach: young man, Take heed, said she, take heed, Valerian ! My bosom's guard, a spirit great and strong, Stands armed to shield me from all wanton wrong, My charity is sacred, and my sleep
Wakeful, her dear vows undefiled to keep. Pallas bears arms, forsooth, and should there be No fortress built for true virginity?
No gaping gorgon this, none, like the rest
Of your learned lies: here you'll find no such jest. I'm yours; 0, where my God, my Christ so too, I'd know no name of love on earth but you. He yields, and straight baptized, obtains the grace To gaze on the fair soldier's glorious face. Both mix'd at last their blood in one rich bed Of rosy martyrdom twice marrièd.
O, burn our Hymen bright in such high flame; Thy torch, terrestrial love, have here no name. How sweet the mutual yoke of man and wife, When holy fires maintain love's heav'nly life! But I, so help me, Heav'n, my hopes to see, When thousands sought my love, loved none but thee. Still as their vain tears my firm vows did try, Alexis, he alone is mine, said I ;
Half true, alas! half false proves that poor line, Alexis is alone, but is not mine.
DESCRIPTION OF A RELIGIOUS HOUSE
O roofs of gold o'er riotous tables shining, Whole days and suns devoured with endless
No sails of Tyrian silk proud pavements sweeping; Nor ivory couches costlier slumbers keeping; False lights of flaring gem; tumultuous joys; Halls full of flattering men and frisking boys; Whate'er false shows of short and slippery good Mix the mad sons of men in mutual blood. But walks and unshorn woods, and souls just so Unforced and genuine, but not shady though; Our lodgings hard and homely as our fare,
That chaste and cheap as the few clothes we wear. Those course and negligent, as the natural locks Of these loose grooves, rough as th' unpolish'd rocks. A hasty portion of prescribed sleep;
Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep,
And sing, and sigh, and work, and sleep again; Still rolling a round sphere of still-returning pain; Hands full of hearty labours do much that more they
And work for work, not wages; let to-morrow's
New drops wash off the sweat of this day's sorrows;
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