FROM THE THIRD BOOK OF LAWES'S AYRES. FAIN would I love, but that I fear The fair one she 's a mark to all, WISHES FOR THE SUPPOSED MISTRESS. WHOE'ER she be, That not impossible She That shall command my heart and me; Where'er she lie, Locked up from mortal eye In shady leaves of destiny: Till that ripe birth Of studied Fate stand forth, And teach her fair steps to our earth; Till that divine Idea take a shrine Of crystal flesh, through which to shine : - Meet you her, my Wishes, Bespeak her to my blisses, And be ye called, my absent kisses. I wish her beauty That owes not all its duty To gaudy tire, or glist'ring shoe-tie : Something more than Or rampant feather, or rich fan. A face that's best By its own beauty drest, And can alone command the rest : ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN 1569. LOVE me little, love me long! Love that is too hot and strong Still I would not have thee cold, Fadeth not in haste. If thou lovest me too much, ---- -- 'T will not prove as true a touch; Say thou lovest me, while thou live While that life endures; Nay, and after death, in sooth, Constant love is moderate ever, A suit of durance let it be, Winter's cold or summer's heat, Never can rebel : Shall I love you like the fire, love, Whate'er it finds, destroys. I will love you like the stars, love, They love the ages through! And when this life is o'er, love, We'll leave behind the wind and fire To wage their boisterous wars, Then we shall only be, love, The nearer to the stars! R. W. RAYMOND. A "MERCENARY" MARRIAGE. SHE moves as light across the grass My little maid of Moreton Hall. No matter how or where we loved, Or when we 'll wed, or what befall; I only feel she 's mine at last, Her pedigree - good sooth, 't is long! As meek she glides through Moreton Hall. Whilst I have-nothing; save, perhaps, I laugh; she laughs; the hills and vales We let the neighbors talk their fill, For life is sweet, and love is strong, And two, close knit in marriage ties, The whole world's shams may well despise, Its folly, madness, shame, and wrong. That thou hast kept a portion back, While I have staked the whole, Is there within thy heart a need On all things new and strange ? A WOMAN'S QUESTION. I break all slighter bonds, nor feel Is there one link within the past Or is thy faith as clear and free Does there within thy dimmest dreams Wherein thy life could henceforth breathe, Untouched, unshared by mine? If so, at any pain or cost, O, tell me before all is lost! Look deeper still: if thou canst feel, Within thy inmost soul, THE LADY'S "YES." "YES," I answered you last night; "No," this morning, sir, I say. Colors seen by candle-light Will not look the same by day. When the viols played their best, Lamps above, and laughs below, Love me sounded like a jest, Fit for yes or fit for no. Call me false or call me free, Vow, whatever light may shine, No man on your face shall see Any grief for change on mine. Yet the sin is on us both; Time to dance is not to woo ; Wooing light makes fickle troth Scorn of me recoils on you. Learn to win a lady's faith Nobly, as the thing is high, Bravely, as for life and death, With a loyal gravity. |