63

ON A PERFUMED LADY

You say you 're sweet; how should we know

Whether that you be sweet or no? From powders and perfumes keep free, Then we shall smell how sweet you be.

64

UPON CUPID

LOVE like a gipsy lately came
And did me much importune
To see my hand, that by the same
He might foretell my fortune.

He saw my palm, and then, said he,
I tell thee by this score here
That thou within few months shalt be
The youthful Prince d'Amour here.

I smil'd, and bade him once more prove,
And by some cross-line show it,
That I could ne'er be prince of love,
Though here the princely poet.

65

UPON JULIA'S RIBAND

As shows the air when with a rainbow grac'd,

So smiles that riband 'bout my Julia's

waist;

Or like-nay, 't is that zonulet of love, Wherein all pleasures of the world are

wove.

66

UPON A BLACK TWIST ROUNDING THE ARM

OF THE COUNTESS OF CARLISLE

I SAW about her spotless wrist,
Of blackest silk a curious twist;
Which, circumvolving gently, there
Enthrall'd her arm as prisoner.
Dark was the jail, but as if light
Had met t' engender with the night;
Or so as darkness made a stay
To show at once both night and day.
One fancy more! but if there be
Such freedom in captivity,

I beg to love that ever I

May in like chains of darkness lie.

67

HIS PROTESTATION TO PERILLA

NOONDAY and midnight shall at once be

seen;

Trees, at one time, shall be both sere and

green;

Fire and water shall together lie

In one self-sweet-conspiring sympathy; Summer and winter shall at one time show

Ripe ears of corn, and up to th' ears in

snow;

Seas shall be sandless; fields devoid of

grass;

Shapeless the world, as when all chaos wasBefore, my dear Perilla, I will be

False to my vow, or fall away from thee.

68

TO MUSIC

BEGIN to charm, and, as thou strok'st mine

ears

With thy enchantment, melt me into tears. Then let thy active hand scud o'er thy lyre, And make my spirits frantic with the fire. That done, sink down into a silvery strain, And make me smooth as balm and oil

again.

69

CORINNA'S GOING A-MAYING

GET up, get up for shame; the blooming

morn

Upon her wings presents the god unshorn.
See how Aurora throws her fair
Fresh-quilted colors through the air.
Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see
The dew bespangling herb and tree.
Each flower has wept and bow'd toward
the east

Above an hour since: yet you not dress'd;
Nay! not so much as out of bed?

When all the birds have matins said And sung their thankful hymns, 't is sin,

Nay, profanation to keep in,

Whereas a thousand virgins on this day
Spring, sooner than the lark, to fetch in
May.

Rise and put on your foliage, and be seen To come forth, like the springtime, fresh

and green,

And sweet as Flora. Take no care
For jewels for your gown or hair.
Fear not; the leaves will strew
Gems in abundance upon you.

Besides, the childhood of the day has kept, Against you come, some Orient pearls

unwept;

Come and receive them while the light Hangs on the dew-locks of the night, And Titan on the eastern hill

Retires himself, or else stands still Till you come forth. Wash, dress, be brief in praying:

Few beads are best when once we go a-Maying.

Come, my Corinna, come; and, coming,

mark

How each field turns a street, each street a park

Made green and trimm'd with trees. See how

Devotion gives each house a bough

Or branch. Each porch, each door ere this
An ark, a tabernacle is,

Made up of white-thorn neatly interwove,
As if here were those cooler shades of love.
Can such delights be in the street
And open fields and we not see 't?
Come, we 'll abroad; and let 's obey
The proclamation made for May,
And sin no more, as we have done, by
staying;

But, my Corinna, come, let 's go a-Maying.