HIS LADY FEARS THE LOSS OF LIBERTY.

EDMUND THE doubt which ye misdeem, fair Love is vain,

SPENSER.

1552-1599.

That fondly fear to lose your liberty;

When losing one, two liberties ye gain

And make him bound that bondage erst did fly.

Sweet be the bands the which true love doth tie
Without constraint or dread of any ill;

The gentle bird feels no captivity

Within her cage; but sings, and feeds her fill;

There pride dare not approach nor discord spill
The league 'twixt them that loyal love hath bound,
But simple truth and mutual good-will

Seeks with sweet peace to salve each other's wound,
There Faith doth fearless dwell in brasen tower,

And spotless Pleasure builds her sacred bower.

EDMUND
SPENSER.

1552-1599.

WILLING BONDAGE.

LIKE as a huntsman after weary chase

Seeing the game from him escaped away

Sits down to rest him in some shady place
With panting hounds beguilèd of their prey ;-
So, after long pursuit and vain assay,

When I all weary had the chase forsook,

The gentle deer returned the self-same way

Thinking to quench her thirst at the next brook;

There she beholding me with milder look,
Sought not to fly, but fearless still did bide;
Till I in hand her yet half trembling took
And with her own good-will her firmly tied ;
Strange thing, meseemed, to see a beast so wild

So goodly won, with her own will beguiled.

EDMUND Spenser. 552-1599.

THE LESSON OF LOVE.

Most glorious Lord of life! that on this day,

Didst make thy triumph over death and sin,

And having harrowed hell didst bring away
Captivity thence captive us to win :

This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin ;
And grant that we, for whom thou diddest die
Being with thy dear blood clean washed from sin

May live for ever in felicity:

And that thy love we weighing worthily,

May likewise love thee for the same again;

And for thy sake, that all like dear didst buy,
With love may one another entertain!

So let us love, dear Love, like as we ought;
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

EDMUND SPENSER.

1552-1599.

HIS LADY SHALL LIVE BY FAME.

ONE day I wrote her name upon the strand;

But came the waves and washèd it away. :

Again I wrote it with a second hand,

But came the tide and made my pains his prey.

Vain man! said she, that dost in vain assay

A mortal thing so to immortalize;

For I myself shall like to this decay,

And eke my name be wipèd out likewise.
Not so, quoth I; let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame :
My verse your virtues fair shall éternize,

And in the heavens write your glorious name.
Where, whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live and later life renew.

EDMUND SPENSER. 1552-1599.

HIS LADY'S ABSENCE.

LIKE as the culver, on the bared bough,

Sits mourning for the absence of her mate;
And in her songs sends many a wishful vow
For his return that seems to linger late :

So I alone, now left disconsolate,

Mourn to myself the absence of my love,

And, wandering here and there all desolate,

Seek with my plaints to match that mournful dove.

Ne joy of ought that under heaven doth hove

Can comfort me, but her own joyous sight;

Whose sweet aspect both God and man can move,

In her unspotted pleasance to delight.

Dark is my day, whiles her fair light I miss,

And dead my life that wants such lively bliss.