Part 3 (2/2)
To the ripe fruit thy vernal season bears!
Yet though I mean no praise, I come t'invite 15 Thy forward aims still to advance their flight.
Rise higher yet; what though thy spreading wreath Lessen, to their dull sight who stay beneath?
To thy full learning how can all allow Just praise, unless that all were learn'd as thou? 20 Go on, in spite of such low souls, and may Thy growing worth know age, though not decay, Till thou pay back thy theft, and live to climb As many years as thou hast s.n.a.t.c.h'd from Time.
ON SIR J[OHN] S[UCKLING] HIS PICTURE AND POEMS [1646].[14:1]
Suckling, whose numbers could invite Alike to wonder and delight, And with new spirit did inspire The Thespian scene, and Delphic lyre, Is thus express'd in either part, 5 Above the humble reach of Art.
Drawn by the pencil, here you find His form; by his own pen, his mind.
ANSWER [TO ”THE UNION,” POEM ADDRESSED TO STANLEY BY HIS FRIEND AND TUTOR, WILLIAM FAIRFAX].[15:1]
If we are one, dear Friend! why shouldst thou be At once unequal to thyself and me?
By thy release thou swell'st my debt the more, And dost but rob thyself to make me poor.
What part can I have in thy luminous cone, 5 What flame, since my love's thine, can call my own, (The palest star is less the son of night,) Who but thy borrow'd know no native light?[15:2]
Was't not enough thou freely didst bestow The Muse, but thou must[15:3] give the laurel too, 10 And twice my aims by thy a.s.sistance raise, Conferring first the merit, then the praise?
But I should do thee greater injury, Did I believe this praise were meant to me, Or thought, though thou hast worth enough to spare 15 T'enrich another soul, that mine should share.
Thy Muse, seeming to lend, calls home her fame, And her due wreath doth, in renouncing, claim.
V. LYRICS PRINTED ONLY IN EDITIONS OF 1647 AND 1657 [GAMBLE].
THE BLUSH.
So fair Aurora doth herself discover (Asham'd o' th' aged bed of her cold lover,) In modest blushes, whilst the treacherous light Betrays her early shame to the world's sight.
Such a bright colour doth the morning rose 5 Diffuse, when she her soft self doth disclose Half drown'd in dew, whilst on each leaf a tear Of night doth like a dissolv'd pearl appear; Yet 'twere in vain a colour out to seek To parallel my Chariessa's cheek; 10 Less are compar'd[16:1] with greater, and these seem To blush like her, not she to blush like them.
But whence, fair soul, this pa.s.sion? what pretence Had guilt to stain thy spotless innocence?
Those only this feel who have guilty been, 15 Not any blushes know, but who know[16:2] sin.
Then blush no more; but let thy chaster flame, That knows no cause, know no effects of shame.
THE COLD KISS.
Such icy kisses, anchorites that live Secluded from the world, to dead skulls give; And those[17:1] cold maids on whom Love never spent His flame, nor know what by desire is meant, To their expiring fathers such bequeath, 5 s.n.a.t.c.hing their fleeting spirits in that breath: The timorous priest doth with such fear and nice Devotion touch the Holy Sacrifice.
Fie, Chariessa! whence so chang'd of late, As to become in love a reprobate? 10 Quit, quit this dulness, Fairest, and make known A flame unto me equal with mine[17:2] own.
Shake off this frost, for shame, that dwells upon Thy lips; or if it will not so be gone, Let's once more join our lips,[17:3] and thou shalt see 15 That by the flame of mine 'twill melted be.
THE IDOLATER.
Think not, pale lover, he who dies Burnt in the flames of Celia's eyes, Is unto Love a sacrifice;
Or, by the merit of this pain, Thou shalt the crown of martyrs gain! 5 Those hopes are, as thy pa.s.sion, vain.
For when, by death, from[18:1] these flames free, To greater thou condemn'd shalt be, And punish'd for idolatry,
Since thou, Love's votary before, 10 (Whilst she[18:2] was kind,) dost him no more, But, in his shrine, Disdain adore.
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