WILLIAM 1564-1616. A REMEDY FOR SADNESS. WHEN to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan, Which I new pay as if not paid before. But if the while I think on thee, dear Friend, All losses are restored, and sorrows end. WILLIAM SPEARE. 1564-1616. A LOVER'S REQUEST. If thou survive my well-contented day, When that churl Death my bones with dust shall cover, And shalt by fortune once more re-survey These poor rude lines of thy deceased lover, Compare them with the bettering of the time; O, then vouchsafe me but this loving thought : "Had my friend's Muse grown with this growing age, A dearer birth than this his love had brought, To march in ranks of better equipage : But since he died, and poets better prove, Theirs for their style I'll read, his for his love." WILLIAM 1564-1616. SUNSHINE AND CLOUD. FULL many a glorious morning have I seen Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye, Kissing with golden face the meadows green, And from the forlorn world his visage hide, Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace : Suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth. WILLIAM SPEARE. 1564-1616. THE TENTH MUSE. How can my Muse want subject to invent, While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse Thine own sweet argument, too excellent For every vulgar paper to rehearse ? O, give thyself the thanks, if aught in me For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee, If my slight Muse do please these curious days, WILLIAM SPEARE. 1564-1616. THE VITALITY OF TRUTH. O How much more doth beauty beauteous seem By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, When that shall fade, my verse distils your truth. D |