THOU vermin slander, bred in abject minds
Of thoughts impure, by vile tongues animate,
Canker of conversation! couldst thou find
Nought but our love whereon to show thy hate?
Thou never wert, when we two were alone;
What canst thou witness then? thy base dull aid
Was useless in our conversation,
Where each meant more than could by both be said.
Whence hadst thou thy intelligence; from earth?
That part of us ne'er knew that we did love.
Or from the air? Our gentle sighs had birth
From such sweet raptures as to joy did move.

She marries the knight she loves —
And she scorns the lord she hates:
And there's dancing in the old castle hall
And dancing under the gates.

Mentor

Be warned of steps retrieved in pain.

Pupils

We have strength, we have blood, we are young,

Mentor

Youth sows the links, man wears the chain.

Pupils

Shall a sweet lyric cease to be sung?

Mentor

Three Students went over the Rhine one day
And to a good Landlady made their way —

" Now Landlady have you good wine and beer,
" And how is your little Daughter dear " ?

" My wine and beer, is fresh and clear
" On her Deathbed lays my Daughter dear. "

And as they into the Chamber stept
In a black coffin they saw she slept.

The first from her face the white veil took
And look'd at her long with a sorrowful look.

" Ah! wer't Thou alive Thou maiden flower
" Thee should I love from this very hour. "

Give me the avowed, erect and manly foe;
Firm I can meet, perhaps return the blow;
But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send,
Save me, oh, save me, from the candid friend.
Quoted by Robert Peel in a parliamentary debate, 1845, Canning's words were turned against him in a triumphant rebuttal by Disraeli (Robert Blake, Disraeli [New York: St. Martin's, 1967], p. 185).

The Candid Friend who strikes because he loves,
Should curb his muscles when he plies the gloves.

And the best gift of God
Is the love of superior souls

— — Love
Asks nought his brother cannot give
Asks nothing but does all receive
Love calls not to his aid events
He to his wants can well suffice
Asks not of others soft consents
Nor kind Occasion without eyes
Nor plots to ope or bolt a gate
Nor heeds Condition's iron walls
Where he goes, goes before him Fate;
Whom he uniteth God instals;
Instant & perfect his access
To the dear object of his thought,
Though foes & lands & seas between
Himself & his love intervene.

I
Winters know
Easily to shed the snow,
And the untaught Spring is wise
In cowslips and anemonies.
Nature, hating art and pains,
Baulks and baffles plotting brains;
Casualty and Surprise
Are the apples of her eyes;
But she dearly loves the poor,
And, by marvel of her own,
Strikes the loud pretender down.
For Nature listens in the rose,
And hearkens in the berry's bell,
To help her friends, to plague her foes,
And like wise God she judges well.
Yet doth much her love excel

CCXIV

Thy promise was to love me best
And that thy heart with mine should rest,
And not to break this thy behest
Thy promise was, thy promise was.

Thy promise was not to acquit
My faithfulness with such despite,
But recompense it if thou might
Thy promise was, thy promise was.

Thy promise was, I tell thee plain,
My faith should not be spent in vain,
But to have more should be my gain
Thy promise was, thy promise was.

Thy promise was to have observed
My faith like as it hath deserved,

TO HIS MISTRESS .

A CARVER , having loved too long in vain,
Hew'd out the portraiture of Venus' son
In marble rock, upon the which did rain
Small drizzling drops, that from a fount did run;
Imagining the drops would either wear
His fury out, or quench his living flame:
But when he saw it bootless did appear,
He swore the water did augment the same.
So I, that seek in verse to carve thee out,