Of water-cress, Which of thy kindness thou hast sent: And my content Makes those, and my beloved beet, To be more sweet. 'Tis thou that crown'st my glittering hearth With guiltless mirth; And giv'st me wassail bowls to drink, Spiced to the brink. Lord, 'tis thy plenty-dropping hand That soils my land: And giv❜st me, for bushel sown, my Twice ten for one: Thou mak'st my teeming hen to lay Her egg each day : Besides my healthful ewes to bear The while the conduits of my kine All these, and better, thou dost send That I should render, for my part Which, fired with incense, I resign But the acceptance that must be, My Christ, by thee. HENRY KING. 1592-1669. LXXXVII. L ON THE LIFE OF MAN. IKE to the falling of a star, Or as the flights of eagles are, Or like a wind that chafes the flood, The wind blows out, the bubble dies, LXXXVIII. George Herbert, 1593-1633. VIRTUE. WEET day, so cool, so calm, so bright, Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave And thou must die. Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, 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. LXXXIX. H MAN'S MEDLEY. ARK how the birds do sing, And woods do ring : All creatures have their joy, and man hath his. Yet if we rightly measure, Man's joy and pleasure Rather hereafter than in present is. To this life things of sense Make their pretence; In the other angels have a right by birth: Man ties them both alone, And makes them one, With the one hand touching heaven, with the other earth. In soul he mounts and flies, In flesh he dies; He wears a stuff whose thread is coarse and round, But trimmed with curious lace, And should take place After the trimming, not the stuff and ground. Not that he may not here Taste of the cheer: But as birds drink, and straight lift up their head, So must he sip and think He may Of better drink attain to after he is dead. But as his joys are double, So is his trouble; He hath two winters, other things but one: And he of all things fears two deaths alone. Yet even the greatest griefs May be reliefs, Could he but take them right and in their ways. Happy is he whose heart Hath found the art To turn his double pains to double praise. XC. A' BITTER-SWEET. H! my dear angry Lord, Since thou dost love, yet strike, Cast down, yet help afford; Sure I will do the like. |