50 Wit able enough to justify the town For three days past! Wit, that might warrant be For the whole city to talk foolishly Till that were cancelled! And, when we were gone, We left an air behind us, which alone When I remember this, and see that now That takes no medicines! But one thought of thee Makes me remember all these things to be The wit of our young men, fellows that show No part of good, yet utter all they know! Who, like trees of the guard, have growing souls. 1 rally 2 kept 3 smart quips or hits Only strong Destiny, which all controls, 70 I hope hath left a better fate in store For me, thy friend, than to live ever poor, Banished unto this home! Fate, once again, 'Bring me to thee, who canst make smooth and plain The way of knowledge for me; and then I, I'll drink thy Muse's health! thou shalt quaff mine! WILLIAM DRUMMOND (1585-1649) SONNET 80 A passing glance, a lightning 'long the skies, That, ush'ring thunder, dies straight to our sight; A spark, of contraries which doth arise, night: Is this small Small call'd life, held in such price All is a dream, learn in this prince's fall, In whom, save death, nought mortal was at all. JOHN FORD (fl. 1639) SONG FROM THE BROKEN HEART Can you paint a thought? or number Can you count soft minutes roving No, O, no! yet you may All loves, all hearts, 5 ΙΟ 15 Glories, pleasures, pomps, delights, and ease, Can but please The outward senses, when the mind Is or untroubled or by peace refined. IST VOICE. Crowns may flourish and decay, 5 Beauties shine, but fade away. 2ND VOICE. Youth may revel, yet it must Lie down in a bed of dust. 3RD VOICE. Earthly honours flow and waste, Time alone doth change and last. CHOR. ΙΟ Sorrows mingled with contents prepare Rest for care; Love only reigns in death; though art Can find no comfort for a broken heart. 146 Must in his harvest or lose all again. Now must he pluck the rose lest other hands, Or tempests, blemish what so fairly stands: And therefore, as they had before decreed, Our shepherd gets a boat, and with all speed, In night, that doth on lovers' actions smile, Arrived safe on Mona's fruitful isle.2 152 Between two rocks (immortal, without mother.) That stand as if out-facing one another, Where never gale was longer known to stay 159 Than from the smooth wave it had swept. away The new divorced leaves, that from each side Left the thick boughs to dance out with the tide. At further end the creek a stately wood Than that sky-scaling Peak of Teneriffe, 166 Upon whose tops the hernshaw bred her young, And hoary moss upon their branches hung; Whose rugged rinds sufficient were to show, Without their height, what time they 'gan to 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 Made up of white-thorn, neatly interwove; 40 |