Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

From the mountain, and ere day
Bear a lamb or kid away;
Or the crafty, thievish fox
Break upon your simple flocks.
To secure yourself from these
Be not too secure in ease;

So shall you good shepherds prove,

And deserve your master's love.

Now, good night! may sweetest slumbers

And soft silence fall in numbers1

On your eye-lids! so farewell;

-Thus I end my evening's knell.

[blocks in formation]

He was a gentleman of the Privy Chamber, and "Taster-Geucral" to Charles I.

UNFADING BEAUTY.

He that loves a rosy cheek,
Or a coral lip admires,

Or from star-like eyes doth seek
Fuel to maintain his fires;
As old Time makes these decay,
So, his flames1 must melt away.

But a smooth and steadfast mind,
Gentle thoughts, and calm desires,
Hearts with equal love combined,
Kindle never-dying fires:
Where these are not, I despise

Lovely cheeks, or lips, or eyes.

1 numbers, harmonious sounds.

flames, affection.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Robert Herrick was an English vicar, and was ejected by Cromwell, but reinstated by Charles II. His poems show an elegant fancy, but are often disfigured by the forced quaintness in fashion in his day.

SONG.

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a flying;

And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious Lamp of Heaven, the Sun,
The higher he's a getting

The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,

When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse and worst
Times still succeed the former.

[blocks in formation]

What, were ye born to be

An hour or half's delight,
And so to bid good-night?
'Twas pity Nature brought ye forth
Merely to show your worth,"
And lose you quite.

But you are lovely leaves, where we
May read how soon things have
Their end, though ne'er so brave:*
And after they have shown their pride
Like you, a while, they glide
Into the grave.

30

THE COUNTRY LIFE.

SWEET Country life, to such unknown
Whose lives are others, not their own,
But, serving courts and cities, be
Less happy, less enjoying thee:
-Thou never plough'st the ocean's foam
To seek and bring rough pepper home;
Nor to the Eastern Ind1 dost rove

To bring from thence the scorchèd clove;
Nor, with the loss of thy loved rest,
Bring'st home the ingot from the west :3

*See Note 3, p. 47.

1 Eastern Ind, East Indies. 2 ingot, a bar of gold or silver.

3 Gold and silver were then brought

chiefly from South America.

No! thy ambition's masterpiece*

Flies no thought higher than a fleece;
Or how to pay thy hinds, and clear

5

All scores, and so to end the year:
But walk'st about thine own dear bounds,
Not envying others' larger grounds;
For well thou know'st 'tis not th' extent
Of land makes life, but sweet content.

When now the cock, the ploughman's horn,
Calls forth the lily-wristed morn,
Then to thy cornfields thou dost go,
Which though well soil'd, yet thou dost know
That the best compost for the lands
Is the wise master's feet and hands:
There at the plough thou find'st thy team,
With a hind whistling there to them;
And cheer'st them up, by singing how
The kingdom's portion is the plough:
This done, then to th' enamell'd meads?
Thou go'st, and as thy foot there treads,
Thou seest a present God-like power
Imprinted in each herb and flower;
And smell'st the breath of great-eyed kine
Sweet as the blossoms of the vine:

Here thou behold'st thy large sleek neats
Unto the dew-laps up in meat;9

4 Thy highest wish.

5 hinds, farm servants.

• compost, manure.

' enamelled meads, meadows covered with flowers.

8 Lit., not knowing, an ox. Scotch, nout, black cattle.

In grass up to the loose folds round its throat, which lap the morning dew.

And as thou look'st, the wanton steer,10
The heifer, cow, and ox draw near,
To make a pleasing pastime there :—
These seen, thou go'st to view thy flocks
Of sheep, safe from the wolf and fox,
And find'st their bellies there as full

Of short sweet grass, as backs with wool;
And leav❜st them, as they feed and fill-
A shepherd piping on a hill.

For sports, for pageantry,11 and plays,
Thou hast thy eves12 and holydays;
On which the young men and maids meet
To exercise their dancing feet,

Tripping the comely country round,
With daffodils and daisies crown'd.

Thy wakes,13 thy quintels,1* here thou hast,
Thy May-poles15 too with garlands graced,
Thy morris-dance,16 thy Whitsun-ale,17
Thy shearing-feasts which never fail,

10 steer, a young ox.

11 pageantry, shows, processions. 12 eves, the evenings before a holi

day, or evenings merely.

13 wakes, the commemoration of the dedication of a church, formerly kept by sitting up all night. quintels, a sport in which a

mark was set on one end of a board, which had a sandbag on the other. Failing to strike the mark fairly with a pole as he ran past, the sandbag hit the player

on the back, as it turned swiftly
round with his blow.

15 May-poles, poles set up on May
1, May-day, for dancing ronnd.
16 morris-dance, lit., a Moorish
dance, in which bells, rattles, &c.,
are used, with masks, and fancy
dresses of all kinds.

17 Whitsun-ale was another fes

tival, held at Whitsun-tide. There was a lord and lady of the ale, and a great dance, with a mimicry of a court-ball.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »