Of this worlds theatre in which we stay,My Love, like the spectator, ydly sits,Beholding me, that all the pageants play,Disguysing diversly my troubled wits.Sometimes I ioy when glad occasion fits,And mask in myrth lyke to a comedy:Soone after, when my ioy to sorrow flits,I waile, and make my woes a tragedy.Yet she, beholding me with […]

The panther, knowing that his spotted hydeDoth please all beasts, but that his looks them fray*,Within a bush his dreadful head doth hide,To let them gaze, whylst he on them may pray.Right so my cruell fayre with me doth play;For with the goodly semblance of her hewShe doth allure me to mine owne decay,And then […]

Doe I not see that fayrest ymagesOf hardest marble are of purpose made,For that they should endure through many ages,Ne let theyr famous moniments to fade?Why then doe I, untrainde in lovers trade,Her hardnes blame, which I should more commend?Sith never ought was excellent assaydeWhich was not hard t’atchive and bring to end;Ne ought so […]

So oft as homeward I from her depart,I go lyke one that, having lost the field,Is prisoner led away with heavy hart,Despoyld of warlike armes and knowen shield.So doe I now my self a prisoner yieldTo sorrow and to solitary paine,From presence of my dearest deare exylde,Long-while alone in languor to remaine.There let no thought […]

Comming to kisse her lyps, (such grace I found,)Me seemd I smelt a gardin of sweet flowres,That dainty odours from them threw around,For damzels fit to decke their lovers bowres.Her lips did smell lyke unto gillyflowers;Her ruddy cheekes lyke unto roses red;Her snowy browes lyke budded bellamoures;Her lovely eyes lyke pincks but newly spred;Her goodly […]

Sweet warriour! when shall I have peace with you?High time it is this warre now ended were,Which I no lenger can endure to sue,Ne your incessant battry more to beare.So weake my powres, so sore my wounds, appear,That wonder is how I should live a iot,Seeing my hart through-launced every whereWith thousand arrowes which your […]

After long stormes and tempests sad assay,Which hardly I endured heretofore,In dread of death, and daungerous dismay,With which my silly bark was tossed sore,I doe at length descry the happy shore,In which I hope ere long for to arryve:Fayre soyle it seemes from far, and fraught with storeOf all that deare and daynty is alyve.Most […]

The weary yeare his race now having run,The new begins his compast course anew:With shew of morning mylde he bath begun,Betokening peace and plenty to ensew.So let us, which this chaunge of weather vew,Chaunge eke our mynds, and former lives amend;The old yeares sinnes forepast let us eschew,And fly the faults with which we did […]

The glorious image of the Makers beautie,My soverayne saynt, the idoll of my thought,Dare not henceforth, above the bounds of dewtie,T’accuse of pride, or rashly blame for ought.For being, as she is, divinely wrought,And of the brood of angels heavenly born,And with the crew of blessed saynts upbrought,Each of which did her with theyr guifts […]

They that in course of heavenly spheares are skildTo every planet point his sundry yeare,In which her circles voyage is fulfild:As Mars in threescore yeares doth run his spheare.So, since the winged god his planet cleareBegan in me to move, one yeare is spent;The which doth longer unto me appeare,Then al those fourty which my […]

Thrise happie she that is so well assuredUnto her selfe, and setled so in hart,That neither will for better be allured,Ne feard with worse to any chaunce to start:But, like a steddy ship, doth strongly partThe raging waves, and kcepes her course aright,Ne ought for tempest doth from it depart,Ne ought for fayrer weathers false […]

By her that is most assured to her selfe. Weake is th’assurance that weake flesh reposethIn her own powre, and scorneth others ayde;That soonest fals, when as she most supposethHer selfe assur’d, and is of nought affrayd,All flesh is frayle, and all her strength unstayd,Like a vaine bubble blowen up with ayre:Devouring tyme and changeful […]

Oft when my spirit doth spred her bolder winges,In mind to mount up to the purest sky,It down is weighd with thought of earthly things,And clogd with burden of mortality:Where, when that soverayne beauty it doth spy,Resembling heavens glory in her light,Drawn with sweet pleasures bayt it back doth fly,And unto heaven forgets her former […]

I ioy to see how, in your drawen work,Your selfe unto the Bee ye doe compare,And me unto the Spyder, that doth lurkeIn close awayt, to catch her unaware.Right so your selfe were caught in cunning snareOf a deare foe, and thralled to his love;In whose streight bands ye now captived areSo firmely, that ye […]

Fresh Spring, the herald of loves mighty king,In whose cote-armour richly are displaydAll sorts of flowres the which on earth do spring,In goodly colours gloriously arrayd,Goe to my Love, where she is carelesse layd,Yet in her winters bowre not well awake:Tell her the ioyous time wil not be staid,Unlesse she doe him by the forelock […]

The famous warriors of the anticke worldUs’d trophees to erect in stately wize,In which they would the records have enroldOf theyr great deeds and valorous emprize.What trophee then shall I most fit devize,In which I may record the memoryOf my loves conquest, peerlesse beauties prise,Adorn’d with honour, love, and chastity!Even this verse, vowd to eternity,Shall […]

Lyke as a huntsman, after weary chace,Seeing the game from him escapt away,Sits downe to rest him in some shady place,With panting hounds, beguiled of their pray,So, after long pursuit and vaine assay,When I all weary had the chace forsooke,The gentle deer returnd the selfe-same way,Thinking to quench her thirst at the next brooke.There she, […]

Most glorious Lord of lyfe! that on this dayDidst make thy triumph over death and sin,And, having harrowd* hell, didst bring awayCaptivity thence captive, us to win,This ioyous day, dear Lord, with ioy begin;And grant that we, for whom thou diddest dy,Being with thy deare blood clene washt from sin,May live for ever in felicity;And […]

To all those happy blessings which ye haveWith plenteous hand by heaven upon you thrown,This one disparagement they to you gave,That ye your love lent to so meane a one.Ye, whose high worths surpassing paragonCould not on earth have found one fit for mate,Ne but in heaven matchable to none,Why did ye stoup unto so […]

The doubt which ye misdeeme, fayre Love, is vaine,That fondly feare to lose your liberty,When, losing one, two liberties ye gayne,And make him bond that bondage earst did fly.Sweet be the bands the which true love doth tye,Without constraynt or dread of any ill:The gentle birde feeles no captivityWithin her cage, but sings, and feeds […]