A VISION UPON THE FAERY QUEEN.

SIR WALTER METHOUGHT I saw the grave where Laura lay,

RALEIGH.

1552-1618.

Within that temple where the vestal flame

Was wont to burn; and passing by that way
To see that buried dust of living fame,

Whose tomb fair Love and fairer Virtue kept,
All suddenly I saw the Faëry Queen :

At whose approach the soul of Petrarch wept ;
And from thenceforth those Graces were not seen,

For they this Queen attended; in whose stead

Oblivion laid him down on Laura's hearse.

Hereat the hardest stones were seen to bleed,

And groans of buried ghosts the heavens did pierce,

Where Homer's spright did tremble all for grief,

And cursed the access of that celestial thief.

OF HIS MISTRESS:

UPON OCCASION OF A FRIEND OF HIS WHICH DISSUADED HIM FROM LOVING.

HENRY CONSTABLE.

A FRIEND of mine moaning my helpless love,

Born 1555? Hoping, by killing hope, my love to slay ;

"Let not," quoth he, "thy hope thy heart betray,
Impossible it is her heart to move."

But, sith resolvèd love cannot remove

As long as thy divine perfections stay,

Thy godhead then he sought to take away :-
Dear! seek revenge, and him a liar prove.

Gods only do impossibilities:

'Impossible," saith he, "thy grace to gain!"

Show then the power of thy divinities,

By granting me thy favour to obtain :
So shall thy foe give to himself the lie,
A goddess thou shalt prove, and happy I.

OF HIS MISTRESS:

UPON OCCASION OF HER WALKING IN A GARDEN.

HENRY CONSTABLE.

Born 1555 ?

My lady's presence makes the roses red,

Because to see her lips they blush for shame :
The lilies' leaves, for envy, pale became,

And her white hands in them this envy bred.
The marigold abroad her leaves doth spread,
Because the sun's and her power is the same;
The violet of purple colour came,

Dyed with the blood she made my heart to shed.

In brief-all flowers from her their virtue take :
From her sweet breath their sweet smells do proceed,

The living heat which her eye-beams do make
Warmeth the ground, and quickeneth the seed.

The rain wherewith she watereth these flowers

Falls from mine eyes, which she dissolves in showers.

LOVE'S FOOD.

PITY refusing my poor love to feed,

A beggar starved for want of help he lies,

And at your mouth, the door of beauty, cries—

That thence some alms of sweet grants may proceed.

But as he waiteth for some almes-deed

A cherry-tree before the door he spies

"Oh dear!" quoth he, "two cherries may suffice,

Two only, life may save in this my need."

But beggars can they nought but cherries eat?
Pardon my Love, he is a goddess' son,
And never feedeth but on dainty meat,

Else need he not to pine as he hath done :
For only the sweet fruit of this sweet tree
Can give food to my Love, and life to me.

HENRY CONSTABLE.

Born 1555

LOVE'S CONSTANCY.

NEEDS must I leave, and yet needs must I love;

In vain my wit doth paint in verse my woe:

Disdain in thee despair in me doth show

How by my wit I do my folly prove.

All this my heart from love can never move;
Love is not in my heart, no, lady, no :

My heart is love itself; till I forego

My heart, I never can my love remove.

How shall I then leave love? I do intend
Not to crave grace, but yet to wish it still;
Not to praise thee, but beauty to commend,
And so by beauty's praise, praise thee I will.
For as my heart is love, love not in me,

So beauty thou-beauty is not in thee.