That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height
be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come; 10
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

CXLVI

Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
[Amidst] these rebel powers that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? is this thy body's end?
Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on
men,

ΙΟ

And Death once dead, there's no more dying then.

SONGS FROM THE PLAYS

FROM LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST

When icicles hang by the wall,

And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, And Tom bears logs into the hall,

And milk comes frozen home in pail, When blood is nipped and ways be foul, Then nightly sings the staring owl, Tu-whit, tu-who! a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all aloud the wind doth blow,

And coughing drowns the parson's saw, And birds sit brooding in the snow,

And Marian's nose looks red and raw, When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, Then nightly sings the staring owl, Tu-whit, tu-who! a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

1occult influence 2 dupe 3 cool, stir

5

ΙΟ

state

Of our affairs' success, which Circe had
Presaged to me alone, must yet be made 230
To one nor only two known, but to all;
That, since their lives and deaths were left to
fall

In their elections, they might life elect,
And give what would preserve it fit effect.
I first inform'd them, that we were to fly
The heavenly-singing Sirens' harmony,
And flower-adornèd meadow; and that I
Had charge to hear their song, but fetter'd fast
In bands, unfavour'd, to th' erected mast;
From whence, if I should pray, or use com-
mand,

To be enlarged, they should with much more band

243

Contain my strugglings. This I simply told To each particular, nor would withhold What most enjoin'd mine own affection's stay, That theirs the rather might be taught t' obey. In meantime flew our ships, and straight we fetch'd

The Sirens' isle;

a spleenless 2 wind so

250

stretch'd Her wings to waft us, and so urged our keel. But having reach'd this isle, we could not feel The least gasp of it, it was stricken dead, And all the sea in prostrate slumber spread: The Sirens' devil charm'd all. Up then flew My friends to work, strook sail, together drew, And under hatches stow'd them, sat, and plied Their polish'd oars, and did in curls divide The white-head waters. My part then came on: A mighty waxen cake I set upon,

Chopp'd it in fragments with my sword, and wrought

With strong hand every piece, till all were soft.
The great power of the sun, in such a beam 260
As then flew burning from his diadem,
To liquefaction help'd us.

3

Orderly

I stopp'd their ears: and they as fair did ply My feet and hands with cords, and to the mast With other halsers made me soundly fast. Then took they seat, and forth our passage strook,

The foamy sea beneath their labour shook.

1 favorable wind 2 gentle

3 hawsers

Row'd on, in reach of an erected1 voice, The Sirens soon took note, without our noise; Tuned those sweet accents that made charms

so strong,

270

And these learn'd numbers made the Sirens' song:

"Come here, thou worthy of a world of praise, That dost so high the Grecian glory raise; Ulysses! stay thy ship, and that song hear That none pass'd ever but it bent his ear, But left him ravish'd and instructed more By us, than any ever heard before. For we know all things whatsoever were In wide Troy labour'd; whatsoever there The Grecians and the Trojans both sustain'd 280 By those high issues that the Gods ordain'd. And whatsoever all the earth can show T' inform a knowledge of desert, we know."

This they gave accent in the sweetest strain That ever open'd an enamour'd vein.2 When my constrain'd heart needs would have

mine ear

drive

When, far from will to

293

Restore thy blush unto Aurora bright; To Thetis give the honour of thy feet. Let Venus have thy graces her resigned;

And thy sweet voice give back unto the spheres:

But yet restore thy fierce and cruel mind To Hyrcan tigers and to ruthless bears. 12 Yield to the marble thy hard heart again; So shalt thou cease to plague and I to pain.

LIV

Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night,
Brother to Death, in silent darkness born:
Relieve my languish, and restore the light;
With dark forgetting of my care, return!
And let the day be time enough to mourn
The shipwreck of my ill-adventured youth:
Let waking eyes suffice to wail their scorn,
Without the torment of the night's un-
truth.

Cease, dreams, the images of day-desires,

To model forth the passions of the morrow; Never let rising sun approve1 you liars, 11 To add more grief to aggravate my sorrow. Still let me sleep, embracing clouds in vain; And never wake to feel the day's disdain.

He sees the face of Right t' appear as manifold

As are the passions of uncertain man;
Who puts it in all colours, all attires,
To serve his ends, and make his courses hold.
He sees, that let deceit work what it can,
Plot and contrive base ways to high desires,
That the all-guiding Providence doth yet 31
All disappoint, and mocks this smoke of wit.

Nor is he mov'd with all the thundercracks

Of tyrants' threats, or with the surly brow
Of Pow'r, that proudly sits on others' crimes;
Charg'd with more crying sins than those he

checks.

The storms of sad confusion, that may grow Up in the present for the coming times,

1 as judge