Thy watch may stand, my minutes fly posthaste;

No sound calls back the year that once is

past.

Then, sweetest Silvia, let 's no longer stay; True love, we know, precipitates delay. Away with doubts, all scruples hence

remove;

No man at one time can be wise and love.

8

THE PARLIAMENT OF ROSES TO JULIA

I DREAMT the roses one time went
To meet and sit in parliament;
The place for these, and for the rest
Of flowers, was thy spotless breast,
Over the which a state was drawn
Of tiffany or cobweb lawn.

Then in that parley all those powers
Voted the rose the queen of flowers;
But so as that herself should be
The maid of honor unto thee.

9

NO BASHFULNESS IN BEGGING

To get thine ends, lay bashfulness aside; Who fears to ask doth teach to be denied.

10

UPON ELECTRA

WHEN out of bed my love doth spring,
T is but as day a-kindling:

But when she 's up and fully dressed,
"T is then broad day throughout the east.

11

TO PERILLA

AH, my Perilla! dost thou grieve to see Me, day by day, to steal away from thee? Age calls me hence, and my gray hairs

bid come,

And haste away to mine eternal home;
"T will not be long, Perilla, after this,
That I must give thee the supremest kiss:
Dead when I am, first cast in salt, and bring
Part of the cream from that religious

spring;

With which, Perilla, wash my hands and

feet;

That done, then wind me in that very sheet Which wrapped thy smooth limbs when

thou didst implore

The gods' protection but the night before. Follow me weeping to my turf, and there Let fall a primrose, and with it a tear.

Then, lastly, let some weekly strewings be Devoted to the memory of me.

Then shall my ghost not walk about, but keep

Still in the cool and silent shades of sleep.

12

A SONG TO THE MASKERS

COME down and dance ye in the toil

Of pleasures to a heat;
But if to moisture, let the oil

Of roses be your sweat.

Not only to yourselves assume
These sweets, but let them fly
From this to that, and so perfume
E'en all the standers-by;

As goddess Isis, when she went

Or glided through the street,

Made all that touched her, with her scent, And whom she touched, turn sweet.

13

TO PERENNA

WHEN I thy parts run o'er, I can't espy In any one the least indecency;

But every line and limb diffused thence
A fair and unfamiliar excellence:

So that the more I look the more I prove
There's still more cause why I the more
should love.

14

THE WOUNDED HEART

COME, bring your sampler, and with art
Draw in 't a wounded heart,

And dropping here and there:
Not that I think that any dart
Can make yours bleed a tear,
Or pierce it anywhere;
Yet do it to this end: that I

May by

This secret see,

Though you can make

That heart to bleed, yours ne'er will ache For me.

15

TO ANTHEA

IF, dear Anthea, my hard fate it be
To live some few sad hours after thee,
Thy sacred corse with odors I will burn,
And with my laurel crown thy golden urn.

Then holding up there such religious
things

As were, time past, thy holy filletings,
Near to thy reverend pitcher I will fall
Down dead for grief, and end my woes
withal:

So three in one small plot of ground shall lie

Anthea, Herrick, and his poetry.

16

THE WEEPING CHERRY

I SAW a cherry weep, and why?
Why wept it? but for shame
Because my Julia's lip was by,
And did outred the same.
But, pretty fondling, let not fall
A tear at all for that:
Which rubies, corals, scarlets, all
For tincture wonder at.

17

SOFT MUSIC

THE mellow touch of music most doth

wound

The soul when it doth rather sigh than

sound.