To – – – – –
Go—you may call it madness, folly; You shall not chase my gloom away. There’s such a charm in melancholy, I would not, if I could, be gay. Oh, if you knew the pensive pleasure That fills my bosom when I sigh, You would not rob me of a treasure Monarchs are too poor to buy.
Yes, ’tis the pulse of life! my fears were vain!
Yes, ’tis the pulse of life! my fears were vain! I wake, I breathe, and am myself again. Still in this nether world; no seraph yet! Nor walks my spirit, when the sun is set, With troubled step to haunt the fatal board, Where I died last—by poison or the sword; Blanching each honest cheek […]
Sonnet to Italy by Felicia Dorothea Hemans
For thee, Ansonia! Nature’s bounteous hand, Luxuriant spreads around her blooming stores; Profusion laughs o’er all the glowing land, And softest breezes from thy myrtle-shores. Yet though for thee, unclouded suns diffuse Their genial radiance o’er thy blushing plains; Though in thy fragrant groves the sportive muse Delights to pour her wild, enchanted strains; Though […]
Ode to Superstition
ODE TO SUPERSTITION.[1] I. 1. Hence, to the realms of Night, dire Demon, hence! Thy chain of adamant can bind That little world, the human mind, And sink its noblest powers to impotence. Wake the lion’s loudest roar, Clot his shaggy mane with gore, With flashing fury bid his eye-balls shine; Meek is his savage, […]
An Epistle to A Friend
AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND. Villula,……….et pauper agelle, Me tibi, et hos unâ mecum, et quos semper amavi, Commendo. PREFACE. Every reader turns with pleasure to those passages of Horace, and Pope, and Boileau, which describe how they lived and where they dwelt; and which, being interspersed among their satirical writings, derive a secret and […]
The Pleasures of Memory
Twilight’s soft dews steal o’er the village-green, With magic tints to harmonize the scene. Still’d is the hum that thro’ the hamlet broke, When round the ruins of their antient oak The peasants flock’d to hear the minstrel play, And games and carols clos’d the busy day. Her wheel at rest, the matron thrills no […]
Oh could my Mind
Oh could my Mind, unfolded in my page, Enlighten climes and mould a future age; There as it glow’d, with noblest frenzy fraught, Dispense the treasures of exalted thought; To Virtue wake the pulses of the heart, And bid the tear of emulation start! Oh could it still, thro’ each succeeding year, My life, my […]
Italy
There is a glorious City in the Sea. The Sea is in the broad, the narrow streets, Ebbing and flowing; and the salt sea-weed Clings to the marble of her palaces. No track of men, no footsteps to and fro, Lead to her gates. The path lies o’er the Sea, Invisible; and from the land […]
The Language of William Dunbar
The Language of William Dunbar Maybe I should have titled this English of William of Dunbar or William Dunbar’s English, but I haven’t — because I am unsure what exactly is the language in which William Dunbar composed his poems. Or rather, I am pretty certain that the language is English, though literary authorities claim […]
Sonnet III: With how sad steps by Sir Philip Sidney
Sonnet III: With how sad steps by Sir Philip Sidney With how sad steps, O moon, thou climb’st the skies! How silently, and with how wan a face! What! may it be that even in heavenly place That busy archer his sharp arrows tries? Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted eyes Can judge of love, thou feel’st […]
Sonnet II: Not At First Sight by Sir Philip Sidney
Sonnet II: Not At First Sight by Sir Philip Sidney Not at first sight, nor with a dribbed shot Love gave the wound, which while I breathe will bleed; But known worth did in mine of time proceed, Till by degrees it had full conquest got: I saw and liked, I liked but loved not; […]
Sonnet I: Loving In Truth by Sir Philip Sidney
Sonnet I: Loving In Truth by Sir Philip Sidney Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That she (dear She) might take some pleasure of my pain: Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain; I sought fit words to paint […]
Song from Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney
Song from Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney My true love hath my heart, and I have his, By Just Exchange, one for the other given. I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss, There never was a better bargain driven. His heart in me keeps me and him in one, My heart in him […]
Song by Sir Philip Sidney
Song by Sir Philip Sidney Who hath his fancy pleased With fruits of happy sight, Let here his eyes be raised On Nature’s sweetest light; A light which doth dissever And yet unite the eyes, A light which, dying never, Is cause the looker dies. She never dies, but lasteth In life of lover’s heart; […]
Sleep by Sir Philip Sidney
Sleep by Sir Philip Sidney Come Sleep; O Sleep! the certain knot of peace, The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe, The poor man’s wealth, the prisoner’s release, Th’ indifferent judge between the high and low; With shield of proof shield me from out the prease Of those fierce darts Despair at me doth […]
Sir Philip Sidney; Astrophel and Stella: XXIII by Sir Philip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidney; Astrophel and Stella: XXIII by Sir Philip Sidney The curious wits, seeing dull pensiveness Bewray itself in my long-settl’d eyes, Whence those same fumes of melancholy rise, With idle pains and missing aim do guess. Some, that know how my spring I did address, Deem that my Muse some fruit of knowledge […]
Ring Out Your Bells by Sir Philip Sidney
Ring Out Your Bells by Sir Philip Sidney Ring out your bells, let mourning shows be spread; For Love is dead– All love is dead, infected With plague of deep disdain; Worth, as nought worth, rejected, And Faith fair scorn doth gain. From so ungrateful fancy, From such a female franzy, From them that use […]
Psalm 19: Coeli Enarrant by Sir Philip Sidney
Psalm 19: Coeli Enarrant by Sir Philip Sidney The heavenly frame sets forth the fame Of him that only thunders; The firmament, so strangely bent, Shows his handworking wonders. Day unto day doth it display, Their course doth it acknowledge, And night to night succeeding right In darkness teach clear knowledge. There is no speech, […]
Philomela by Sir Philip Sidney
Philomela by Sir Philip Sidney The nightingale, as soon as April bringeth Unto her rested sense a perfect waking, While late bare earth, proud of new clothing, springeth, Sings out her woes, a thorn her song-book making, And, mournfully bewailing, Her throat in tunes expresseth What grief her breast oppresseth, For Tereus’ force on her […]
Loving In Truth, And Fain In Verse My Love To Show by Sir Philip Sidney
Loving In Truth, And Fain In Verse My Love To Show by Sir Philip Sidney Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That She, dear She, might take some pleasure of my pain, —Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain— […]
Leave Me, O Love Which Reachest But To Dust by Sir Philip Sidney
Leave Me, O Love Which Reachest But To Dust by Sir Philip Sidney Leave me, O love which reachest but to dust, And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things; Grow rich in that which never taketh rust: Whatever fades but fading pleasure brings. Draw in thy beams, and humble all thy might To that […]
Come Sleep, O Sleep! The Certain Knot Of Peace by Sir Philip Sidney
Come Sleep, O Sleep! The Certain Knot Of Peace by Sir Philip Sidney Come, Sleep! O Sleep, the certain knot of peace, The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe, The poor man’s wealth, the prisoner’s release, Th’ indifferent judge between the high and low; With shield of proof shield me from out the press […]
Astrophel and Stella: XXXIX by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel and Stella: XXXIX by Sir Philip Sidney Come Sleep! O Sleep, the certain knot of peace, The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe, The poor man’s wealth, the prisoner’s release, Th’ indifferent judge between the high and low. With shield of proof shield me from out the prease Of those fierce darts despair […]
Astrophel and Stella: XXXIII by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel and Stella: XXXIII by Sir Philip Sidney I might!–unhappy word–O me, I might, And then would not, or could not, see my bliss; Till now wrapt in a most infernal night, I find how heav’nly day, wretch! I did miss. Heart, rend thyself, thou dost thyself but right; No lovely Paris made thy Helen […]
Astrophel and Stella: XX by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel and Stella: XX by Sir Philip Sidney Fly, fly, my friends, I have my death wound, fly! See there that boy, that murd’ring boy, I say, Who, like a thief, hid in dark bush doth lie Till bloody bullet get him wrongful prey. So tyrant he no fitter place could spy, Nor so fair […]
Astrophel and Stella: XV by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel and Stella: XV by Sir Philip Sidney You that do search for every purling spring Which from the ribs of old Parnassus flows, And every flower, not sweet perhaps, which grows Near thereabouts, into your poesy wring; Ye that do dictionary’s method bring Into your rimes, running in rattling rows; You that poor Petrarch’s […]
Astrophel and Stella: XLI by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel and Stella: XLI by Sir Philip Sidney Having this day my horse, my hand, my lance Guided so well that I obtain’d the prize, Both by the judgment of the English eyes And of some sent from that sweet enemy France; Horsemen my skill in horsemanship advance, Town folks my strength; a daintier judge […]
Astrophel and Stella: XCII by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel and Stella: XCII by Sir Philip Sidney Be your words made, good sir, of Indian ware, That you allow me them by so small rate? Or do you cutted Spartans imitate? Or do you mean my tender ears to spare, That to my questions you so total are? When I demand of Phœnix Stella’s […]
Astrophel and Stella VII: WhenNature Made her Chief Work by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel and Stella VII: WhenNature Made her Chief Work by Sir Philip Sidney When Nature made her chief work, Stella’s eyes, In colour black why wrapt she beams so bright? Would she in beamy black, like painter wise, Frame daintiest lustre, mix’d of shades and light? Or did she else that sober hue devise, In […]
Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet XXXI by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet XXXI by Sir Philip Sidney With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb’st the skies! How silently, and with how wan a face! What! may it be that even in heavenly place That busy archer his sharp arrows tries? Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted eyes Can judge of love, thou feel’st a lover’s […]
Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet LIV by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet LIV by Sir Philip Sidney Because I breathe not love to every one, Nor do not use set colours for to wear, Nor nourish special locks of vowed hair, Nor give each speech a full point of a groan, The courtly nymphs, acquainted with the moan Of them who in their lips […]
Astrophel And Stella; Sonnet CVIII by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel And Stella; Sonnet CVIII by Sir Philip Sidney When Sorrow, using mine own fire’s might, Melts down his lead into my boiling breast, Through that dark furnace to my heart oppressed, There shines a joy from thee, my only light: But soon as thought of thee breeds my delight, And my young soul flutters […]
Astrophel and Stella LXXXIV: HIGHWAY by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel and Stella LXXXIV: HIGHWAY by Sir Philip Sidney Highway, since you my chief Parnassus be, And that my Muse, to some ears not unsweet, Tempers her words to trampling horses’ feet More oft than to a chamber melody. Now, blessed you bear onward blessed me To her, where I my heart, safe-left, shall meet: […]
Astrophel and Stella: LXXI by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel and Stella: LXXI by Sir Philip Sidney Who will in fairest book of nature know How virtue may best lodg’d in beauty be, Let him but learn of love to read in thee, Stella, those fair lines which true goodness show. There shall he find all vices’ overthrow, Not by rude force, but sweetest […]
Astrophel and Stella: LXIV by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel and Stella: LXIV by Sir Philip Sidney No more, my dear, no more these counsels try; Oh, give my passions leave to run their race; Let Fortune lay on me her worst disgrace; Let folk o’ercharg’d with brain against me cry; Let clouds bedim my face, break in mine eye; Let me no steps […]
Astrophel and Stella: III by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel and Stella: III by Sir Philip Sidney Let dainty wits cry on the sisters nine, That, bravely mask’d, their fancies may be told; Or, Pindar’s apes, flaunt they in phrases fine, Enam’ling with pied flowers their thoughts of gold. Or else let them in statelier glory shine, Ennobling newfound tropes with problems old; Or […]
Astrophel and Stella: I by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel and Stella: I by Sir Philip Sidney ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: I Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,– Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,– I sought fit […]
Astrophel And Stella-First Song by Sir Philip Sidney
Astrophel And Stella-First Song by Sir Philip Sidney Doubt you to whom my Muse these notes intendeth, Which now my breast o’ercharged to music lendeth? To you, to you, all song of praise is due; Only in you my song begins and endeth. Who hath the eyes which marry state with pleasure? Who keeps the […]