HESPERIDES

1

THE ARGUMENT OF HIS BOOK

I SING of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers,

Of April, May, of June and July flowers; I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails,

wakes,

Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal cakes;

I write of youth, of love, and have access
By these to sing of cleanly wantonness;
I sing of dews, of rains, and piece by piece
Of balm, of oil, of spice and ambergris;
I sing of times transshifting, and I write
How roses first came red and lilies white;
I write of groves, of twilights, and I sing
The Court of Mab, and of the fairy king;
I write of Hell; I sing (and ever shall)
Of Heaven, and hope to have it after all.

2

TO HIS MUSE

WHITHER, mad maiden, wilt thou roam? Far safer 't were to stay at home,

Where thou mayst sit and piping please
The poor and private cottages,

Since cotes and hamlets best agree
With this thy meaner minstrelsy.

There with the reed thou mayst express
The shepherd's fleecy happiness,

And with thy eclogues intermix
Some smooth and harmless bucolics.
There on a hillock thou mayst sing
Unto a handsome shepherdling,
Or to a girl (that keeps the neat)
With breath more sweet than violet.
There, there, perhaps, such lines as these
May take the simple villages;
But for the court, the country wit

Is despicable unto it.

Stay, then, at home, and do not go
Or fly abroad to seek for woe.
Contempts in courts and cities dwell,
No critic haunts the poor man's cell,
Where thou mayst hear thine own lines read

By no one tongue there censured.

That man 's unwise will search for ill,
And may prevent it, sitting still.

3

TO HIS BOOK

WHILE thou didst keep thy candor undefil'd, Dearly I lov'd thee as my first-born child,

But when I saw thee wantonly to roam
From house to house, and never stay at

home,

I broke my bonds of love, and bade thee go,
Regardless whether well thou sped'st or no.
On with thy fortunes then, whate'er they be:
If good, I'll smile; if bad, I'll sigh for thee.

4

ANOTHER

To read my book the virgin shy

May blush while Brutus standeth by,
But when he 's gone, read through what's
writ,

And never stain a cheek for it.

5

WHEN HE WOULD HAVE HIS VERSES READ

IN sober mornings, do not thou rehearse
The holy incantation of a verse;

But when that men have both well drunk
and fed,

Let my enchantments then be sung or read. When laurel spirts i' th' fire, and when the hearth

Smiles to itself, and gilds the roof with

mirth;

When up the thyrse is rais'd, and when the sound

Of sacred orgies flies, a round, a round; When the rose reigns, and locks with ointments shine,

Let rigid Cato read these lines of mine.

6

UPON JULIA'S RECOVERY

DROOP, droop no more, or hang the head, Ye roses almost withered;

Now strength and newer purple get,

Each here declining violet.

O primroses! let this day be

A resurrection unto ye;

And to all flowers alli'd in blood,

Or sworn to that sweet sisterhood:

For health on Julia's cheek hath shed
Claret and cream commingled;
And those her lips do now appear
As beams of coral, but more clear.

7

TO SILVIA TO WED

LET us, though late, at last, my Silvia, wed, And loving lie in one devoted bed.