The Funeral

WHOEVER comes to shroud me, do not harm
Nor question much

That subtle wreath of hair about mine arm ;*
The mystery, the sign you must not touch:
For 'tis my outward soul,

Viceroy to that which, unto heaven being gone,
Will leave this to control

And keep these limbs, her provinces, from dissolution.

For if the sinewy thread my brain lets fall
Through every part

Can tie those parts and make me one of all,

Those hairs, which upward grew and strength and art Have from a better brain,

Can better do 't: except she meant that I

By this should know my pain,

As prisoners then are manacled, when they're condemn'd to die.

Whate'er she meant by 't, bury it with me,
For since I am

Love's Martyr, it might breed idolatry
If into other hands these relics came.
As 'twas humility

To afford to it all that a soul can do,
So 'tis some bravery

That, since you would have none of me, I bury some

of you.

* Cf. The Relique: "A bracelet of bright hair about the bone."

The Relique

WHEN my grave is broke up again
Some second guest to entertain,

(For graves have learn'd that womanhead,
To be to more than one a bed)
And he, that digs it, spies

A bracelet of bright hair about the bone, *
Will he not let us alone,

And think that there a loving couple lies,
Who thought that this device might be some way
To make their souls, at the last busy day,
Meet at this grave, and make a little stay?

If this fall in a time, or land,

Where mis-devotion doth command,
Then he that dlgs us up will bring
Us to the bishop or the king,
To make us reliques: then
Thou shalt be a Mary Magdalen, and I
A something else thereby;

All women shall adore us, and some men.
And, since at such time miracles are sought,
I would have that age by this paper taught
What miracles we harmless lovers wrought.

First we loved well and faithfully,
Yet knew not what we loved, nor why ;
Difference of sex we never knew
No more than guardian angels do;

Coming and going we

Perchance might kiss, but not between those meals;
Our hands ne'er touch'd the seals

Which nature, injured by late law, sets free
These miracles we did; but now, alas,

All measure and all language I should pass
Should I tell what a miracle she was.

* Cf. The Funeral: "That subtle wreath of hair about mine arm.

The Blossom

LITTLE think'st thou, poor flower,

Whom I have watch'd six or seven days, And seen thy birth, and seen what every hour Gave to thy growth, thee to this height to raise, And now dost laugh and triumph on this bough Little think'st thou

That it will freeze anon, and that I shall
To-morrow find thee fall'n, or not at all.

Little think'st thou, poor heart,
That labourest yet to nestle thee,

And think'st by hovering here to get a part
In a forbidden or forbidding tree,

And hopest her stiffness by long siege to bow,
Little think'st thou,

That thou to-morrow, ere that sun doth wake,
Must with this sun and me a journey take.

But thou which lovest to be
Subtle to plague thyself, wilt say,
Alas, if you must go, what's that to me?
Here lies my business, and here I will stay ;
You go to friends, whose love and means present
Various content

To your eyes, ears, and taste, and every part ;
If then your body go, what need your heart?

Well then, stay here; but know,

When thou hast stay'd and done thy most, A naked thinking heart, that makes no show, Is to a woman but a kind of ghost.

How shall she know my heart; or, having none, Know thee for one?

Practice may make her know some other part; But take my word, she doth not know a heart.

Meet me at London, then,

Twenty days hence, and thou shalt see
Me fresher, and more fat, by being with men,
Than if I had stay'd still with her and thee.
For God's sake, if you can, be you so too;
I will give you

There to another friend, whom we shall find
As glad to have my body as my mind.

The Prohibition

TAKE heed of loving me;

At least remember I forbade it thee;
Not that I shall repair my unthrifty waste
Of breath and blood, upon thy sighs and tears,
By being to thee then what to me thou wast;
But so great joy our life at once outwears.
Then, lest thy love by my death frustrate be,
If thou love me, take heed of loving me.

Take heed of hating me;

Or too much triumph in the victory;
Not that I shall be mine own officer,
And hate with hate again retaliate;
But thou wilt lose the style of conqueror,
If I, thy conquest, perish by thy hate.
Then, lest my being nothing lessen thee,
If thou hate me, take heed of hating me.

Yet love and hate me too ;

So these extremes shall ne'er office do
Love me, that I may die the gentler way;
Hate me, because thy love's too great for me;
Or let these two, themselves, not me, decay;
So shall I live, thy stage, not triumph, be.
Then, lest thou thy love hate, and me undo,
O let me live, yet love and hate me too.

The Computation

FOR my first twenty years, since yesterday,
I scarce believ'd thou couldst be gone away;
For forty more I fed on favours past,

And forty on hopes that thou wouldst they might last;
Tears drown'd one hundred, and sighs blew out two;
A thousand, I did neither think, nor do,
Or not divide, all being one thought of you;
Or in a thousand more forgot that too.
Yet call not this long life; but think that I
Am, by being dead, immortal; can ghosts die?

Song

SOUL'S joy, now I am gone,
And you alone,

(Which cannot be,

Since I must leave myself with thee,
And carry thee with me)
Yet when unto our eyes
Absence denies
Each other's sight,

And makes to us a constant night,
When others change to light;
O give no way to grief,
But let belief

Of mutual love

This wonder to the vulgar prove,
Our bodies, not we, move.

Let not thy wit beweep

Words but sense deep;

For when we miss

By distance our hope's joining bliss,
Even then our souls shall kiss ;