Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

But when once from hence we fly,
More and more approaching nigh
Unto young eternity,

Uniting

In that whiter Island, where
Things are evermore sincere ;
Candour here, and lustre there,
Delighting:

There no monstrous fancies shall
Out of hell an horror call,

To create, or cause at all
Affrighting.

There, in calm and cooling sleep,
We our eyes shall never steep,
But eternal watch shall keep,
Attending

Pleasures such as shall pursue
Me immortalized, and you;
And fresh joys, as never too
Have ending.

ROBERT HERRICK.

5

10

15

20

ON A GIRDLE

THAT which her slender waist confined
Shall now my joyful temples bind:
No monarch but would give his crown
His arms might do what this has done.
It was my Heaven's extremest sphere,
The pale which held that lovely deer:
My joy, my grief, my hope, my love
Did all within this circle move.

5

A narrow compass! And yet there
Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair!
Give me but what this ribband bound,
Take all the rest the Sun goes round.

EDMUND WALLER.

10

VIRTUE

SWEET day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky:
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night,

For thou must die.

Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye:

Thy root is ever in its grave,

And thou must die.

Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie:

My music shows ye have your closes,

And all must die.'

Only a sweet and virtuous soul,

Like seasoned timber, never gives,

But though the whole world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

GEORGE HERBERT.

THE ELIXIR

TEACH me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything
To do it as for Thee:

All may of Thee partake:

Nothing can be so mean,

Which with his tincture for Thy sake,'

Will not grow bright and clean.

A servant with this clause

Makes drudgery divine;

Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,
Makes that and th' action fine.

This is the famous stone

That turneth all to gold;

For that which God doth touch and own

5

10

15

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

If thou canst get but thither,

There grows the flower of Peace, The Rose that cannot wither,

Thy fortress and thy ease.

Leave then thy foolish ranges,
For none can thee secure
But One, who never changes,
Thy God, thy life, thy cure.

HENRY VAUGHAN.

15

20

JOHN DRYDEN

1631-1700

DRYDEN was born in Northamptonshire, in the heart of England, and was graduated from Cambridge University. He was the son of Puritan parents and went to London to live while Cromwell was Lord Protector. He went over to the Royalist side, however, at the restoration of Charles II in 1660, and welcomed the king heartily in loyal verses. He remained to the end a stout upholder of the Stuart family, in its days of both good and evil repute. In 1663 he married the Lady Elizabeth Howard, the daughter of a Royalist nobleman. He was appointed collector of customs in the port of London, a position which Chaucer had once held. He was also made Poet Laureate and received other marks of royal favor.

Dryden's literary activity covered many fields. He wrote satires, plays, odes, critical essays, and made many translations from the classics. His fame to-day rests chiefly upon his satires and his odes.

Dryden perhaps had a larger personal following in London than any of the great poets who lived before him. He was the chief literary figure of his day. He held his court at Will's Coffeehouse, where the wittiest men of the time sat at his feet. Pope, when a boy, was taken up to London to get a glimpse of “the great Mr. Dryden." He was buried with great ceremony in Westminster Abbey.

« AnteriorContinuar »