Skip to main content

Farewell to Love

Well-shadowed landskip, fare-ye-well:
How I have loved you, none can tell,
At least so well
As he that now hates more
Then e'er he loved before.

But my dear nothings, take your leave;
No longer must you me deceive,
Since I perceive
All the deceit, and know
Whence the mistake did grow.

As he whose quicker eye doth trace
A false star shot to a marked place
Does run apace,
And thinking it to catch
A jelly up does snatch,

So our dull souls, tasting delight
Far off, by sense, and appetite,
Think that is right

Loue

Ah, poore Loue, whi dost thou liue,
Thus to se thy seruice lost?
Ife she will no comforte geue,
Make an end, yeald vp the goaste;
That she may at lengthe aproue
That she hardlye long beleued,
That the harte will dye for loue
That is not in tyme relieued.
Ohe that euer I was borne,
Seruice so to be refused,
Faythfull loue to be foreborne!
Neuer loue was so abused.
But, swet Loue, be still a whylle;
She that hurte thee, Loue, maye healle thee;
Sweet, I see within her smylle
More than reason can reueale thee.

O Thou That Sleep'st like Pig in Straw

O thou that sleep'st like pig in straw,
—Thou lady dear, arise!
Open, to keep the sun in awe,
—Thy pretty pinking eyes:
And, having stretched each leg and arm,
—Put on your clean white smock,
And then, I pray, to keep you warm,
—A petticoat on dock.

Arise, arise! Why should you sleep
—When you have slept enough?
Long since, French boys cried ‘Chimney-sweep,’
—And damsels ‘Kitchen-stuff.’
The shops were opened long before,
—And youngest prentice goes
To lay at 's mistress' chamber-door
—His master's shining shoes.

To Aubrey de Vere

Poet , whose grave and strenuous lyre is still
For Truth and Duty strung; whose art eschews
The lighter graces of the softer Muse,
Disdainful of mere craftsman's glittering skill:
Yours is a soul from visionary hill
Watching and harkening for ethereal news,
Looking beyond life's storms and death's cold dews
To habitations of the eternal will.

Not mine your mystic creed; not mine, in prayer
And worship, at the ensanguined Cross to kneel!
But when I mark your faith how pure and fair,
How based on love, on passion for man's weal,

Christmas Day

The morn broke bright: the thronging people wore
Their best; but in the general face I saw
No touch of veneration or of awe.
Christ's natal day? 'Twas merely one day more
On which the mart agreed to close its door;
A lounging-time by usage and by law
Sanctioned; nor recked they, beyond this, one straw
Of any meaning which for man it bore!

Fated among Time's fallen leaves to stray,
We breathe an air that savours of the tomb,
Heavy with dissolution and decay;
Waiting till some new world-emotion rise,
And with the might of the unchained simoom

The Soul of Rouget De Lisle

Their arms shall conquer—to victory led
By a voice like a trumpet's peal;
For a great Ghost marches at their head—
The Soul of Rouget de Lisle.

He gave them the Song that cannot die
Till the world's heart cease to feel;
And they go into battle captain'd by
The soul of Rouget de Lisle.

Not for the first time—not for the last—
Does an enemy waver and reel
Before the eternal clarion blast
From the Soul of Rouget de Lisle.

For this is the Song shall break the power
That bids men grovel and kneel—

In Dreams

In dreams the exile cometh home;
In dreams the lost is found;
In dreams the fettered slave may roam
The world around.

In dreams thou may'st a monarch be,
And sit upon a throne.
Give thanks, that this befalleth thee
In dreams alone.

O placid Moon

O PLACID Moon; O pensive Moon;
Canst thou to mortals give only thy splendour?
Give thou thy Calm to all my soul!
Wane not so fast! Age not so soon!
Dream thy white dream, ever tranquil and tender—
Thou that hast found neither rest nor goal.

Loved on the earth, loved on the sea,
Share thou the wealth of thy smile with the waters;
Lull thou the surge where tides rage high!
When through my heart dark tempests flee,
Teach me, O fairest of Night's lovesome daughters,
Teach me but Peace, lest of storm I die.