18

TO HIS MISTRESS OBJECTING TO HIM NEITHER TOYING OR TALKING

You say I love not, 'cause I do not play Still with your curls, and kiss the time away. You blame me, too, because I can't devise Some sport to please those babies in your

eyes:

By love's religion, I must here confess it, The most I love when I the least express it. Small griefs find tongues; full casks are

ever found

To give (if any, yet) but little sound.

Deep waters noiseless are; and this we know, That chiding streams betray small depth

below.

So, when love speechless is, she doth

express

A depth in love and that depth bottomless. Now, since my love is tongueless, know me such

Who speak but little 'cause I love so much.

19

LOVE, WHAT IT IS

LOVE is a circle that doth restless move In the same sweet eternity of love.

20

UPON THE LOSS OF HIS MISTRESSES

I HAVE lost, and lately, these
Many dainty mistresses:
Stately Julia, prime of all;
Sappho next, a principal;
Smooth Anthea for a skin
White, and heaven-like crystalline;
Sweet Electra, and the choice
Myrrha for the lute and voice;
Next Corinna, for her wit,
And the graceful use of it,
With Perilla—all are gone.
Only Herrick 's left alone
For to number sorrow by
Their departures hence, and die.

21

THE PARCE, OR THREE DAINTY DESTINIES: THE ARMILLET

THREE lovely sisters working were,
As they were closely set,
Of soft and dainty maidenhair

A curious armillet.

I, smiling, asked them what they did,
Fair destinies all three,

Who told me they had drawn a thread
Of life, and 't was for me.

They show'd me then how fine 't was spun, And I repli'd thereto

"I care not now how soon 't is done, Or cut, if cut by you."

22

SORROWS SUCCEED

WHEN one is past, another care we have: Thus woe succeeds a woe, as wave a wave.

23

TO ROBIN-REDBREAST

LAID out for dead, let thy last kindness be With leaves and moss-work for to cover me; And while the wood-nymphs my cold corse inter,

Sing thou my dirge, sweet-warbling

chorister!

For epitaph, in foliage, next write this:
Here, here the tomb of Robin Herrick is.

24

DISCONTENTS IN DEVON

MORE discontents I never had
Since I was born than here,
Where I have been and still am sad,
In this dull Devonshire.

Yet, justly too, I must confess
I ne'er invented such
Ennobled numbers for the press,
Than where I loathed so much.

25

HER BED

SEEST thou that cloud as silver clear, Plump, soft, and swelling everywhere? "T is Julia's bed, and she sleeps there.

26

CHERRY RIPE

CHERRY ripe, ripe, ripe, I cry,
Full and fair ones; come and buy.
If so be you ask me where
They do grow, I answer: There,
Where my Julia's lips do smile;
There's the land, or cherry isle,
Whose plantations fully show
All the year where cherries grow.

27

TO HIS MISTRESSES

PUT on your silks, and piece by piece Give them the scent of ambergris;

And for your breaths, too, let them smell Ambrosia-like, or nectarell;

While other gums their sweets perspire, By your own jewels set on fire.

28

TO ANTHEA

Now is the time, when all the lights wax dim;

And thou, Anthea, must withdraw from him Who was thy servant. Dearest, bury me Under that holy oak or Gospel tree,

Where, though thou seest not, thou mayst think upon

Me, when thou yearly go'st procession;
Or, for mine honor, lay me in that tomb
In which thy sacred relics shall have room.
For my embalming, sweetest, there will be
No spices wanting when I 'm laid by thee.

29

AN EPITAPH UPON A CHILD

VIRGINS promis'd when I died
That they would each primrose-tide
Duly, morn and evening, come,
And with flowers dress my tomb.
Having promis'd, pay your debts,
Maids, and here strew violets.