A Thanksgiving to God for His House by Robert Herrick

A Thanksgiving to God for His House by Robert Herrick Lord, Thou hast given me a cell Wherein to dwell; An little house, whose humble roof Is weather-proof; Under the spars of which I lie Both soft and dry; Where Thou my chamber for to ward Hast set a guard Of harmless thoughts, to watch […]

A Ring Presented to Julia by Robert Herrick

A Ring Presented to Julia by Robert Herrick Julia, I bring To thee this Ring. Made for thy finger fit; To shew by this, That our love is (Or sho’d be) like to it. Close though it be, The joynt is free: So when Love’s yoke is on, It must not gall, Or fret at […]

A REQUEST TO THE GRACES by Robert Herrick

A REQUEST TO THE GRACES by Robert Herrick Ponder my words, if so that any be Known guilty here of incivility; Let what is graceless, discomposed, and rude, With sweetness, smoothness, softness be endued: Teach it to blush, to curtsey, lisp, and show Demure, but yet full of temptation, too. Numbers ne’er tickle, or but […]

A PASTORAL SUNG TO THE KING by Robert Herrick

A PASTORAL SUNG TO THE KING by Robert Herrick MONTANO, SILVIO, AND MIRTILLO, SHEPHERDS MON. Bad are the times. SIL. And worse than they are we. MON. Troth, bad are both; worse fruit, and ill the tree: The feast of shepherds fail. SIL. None crowns the cup Of wassail now, or sets the quintel up: […]

A PANEGYRIC TO SIR LEWIS PEMBERTON by Robert Herrick

A PANEGYRIC TO SIR LEWIS PEMBERTON by Robert Herrick Till I shall come again, let this suffice, I send my salt, my sacrifice To thee, thy lady, younglings, and as far As to thy Genius and thy Lar; To the worn threshold, porch, hall, parlour, kitchen, The fat-fed smoking temple, which in The wholesome savour […]

A New Year’s Gift, Sent To Sir Simeon Steward by Robert Herrick

A New Year’s Gift, Sent To Sir Simeon Steward by Robert Herrick No news of navies burnt at seas; No noise of late spawn’d tittyries; No closet plot or open vent, That frights men with a Parliament: No new device or late-found trick, To read by th’ stars the kingdom’s sick; No gin to catch […]

A MEDITATION FOR HIS MISTRESS by Robert Herrick

A MEDITATION FOR HIS MISTRESS by Robert Herrick You are a Tulip seen to-day, But, Dearest, of so short a stay, That where you grew, scarce man can say. You are a lovely July-flower; Yet one rude wind, or ruffling shower, Will force you hence, and in an hour. You are a sparkling Rose i’th’ […]

A MEAN IN OUR MEANS by Robert Herrick

A MEAN IN OUR MEANS by Robert Herrick Though frankincense the deities require, We must not give all to the hallow’d fire. Such be our gifts, and such be our expense, As for ourselves to leave some frankince ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and […]

A Lyric to Mirth by Robert Herrick

A Lyric to Mirth by Robert Herrick While the milder fates consent, Let’s enjoy our merriment : Drink, and dance, and pipe, and play ; Kiss our dollies night and day : Crowned with clusters of the vine, Let us sit, and quaff our wine. Call on Bacchus, chant his praise ; Shake the thyrse, […]

A HYMN TO VENUS AND CUPID by Robert Herrick

A HYMN TO VENUS AND CUPID by Robert Herrick Sea-born goddess, let me be By thy son thus graced, and thee, That whene’er I woo, I find Virgins coy, but not unkind. Let me, when I kiss a maid, Taste her lips, so overlaid With love’s sirop, that I may In your temple, when I […]

A HYMN TO THE GRACES by Robert Herrick

A HYMN TO THE GRACES by Robert Herrick When I love, as some have told Love I shall, when I am old, O ye Graces! make me fit For the welcoming of it! Clean my rooms, as temples be, To entertain that deity; Give me words wherewith to woo, Suppling and successful too; Winning postures; […]

A Hymn to Love by Robert Herrick

A Hymn to Love by Robert Herrick I will confess With cheerfulness, Love is a thing so likes me, That, let her lay On me all day, I’ll kiss the hand that strikes me. I will not, I, Now blubb’ring cry, It, ah! too late repents me That I did fall To love at all– […]

A HYMN TO BACCHUS by Robert Herrick

A HYMN TO BACCHUS by Robert Herrick Bacchus, let me drink no more! Wild are seas that want a shore! When our drinking has no stint, There is no one pleasure in’t. I have drank up for to please Thee, that great cup, Hercules. Urge no more; and there shall be Daffadils giv’n up to […]

A COUNTRY LIFE:TO HIS BROTHER, MR THOMAS HERRICK by Robert Herrick

A COUNTRY LIFE:TO HIS BROTHER, MR THOMAS HERRICK by Robert Herrick Thrice, and above, blest, my soul’s half, art thou, In thy both last and better vow; Could’st leave the city, for exchange, to see The country’s sweet simplicity; And it to know and practise, with intent To grow the sooner innocent; By studying to […]

A Conjuration To Electra by Robert Herrick

A Conjuration To Electra by Robert Herrick By those soft tods of wool With which the air is full; By all those tinctures there, That paint the hemisphere; By dews and drizzling rain That swell the golden grain; By all those sweets that be I’ the flowery nunnery; By silent nights, and the Three forms […]

A Child’s Grace by Robert Herrick

A Child’s Grace by Robert Herrick HERE a little child I stand Heaving up my either hand; Cold as paddocks though they be, Here I lift them up to Thee, For a benison to fall On our meat and on us all. Amen. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, […]

A CANTICLE TO APOLLO by Robert Herrick

A CANTICLE TO APOLLO by Robert Herrick Play, Phoebus, on thy lute, And we will sit all mute; By listening to thy lyre, That sets all ears on fire. Hark, hark! the God does play! And as he leads the way Through heaven, the very spheres, As men, turn all to ears! ————— The End […]

A Bucolic Betwixt Two; Lacon and Thyrsis by Robert Herrick

A Bucolic Betwixt Two; Lacon and Thyrsis by Robert Herrick LACON. For a kiss or two, confess, What doth cause this pensiveness, Thou most lovely neat-herdess? Why so lonely on the hill? Why thy pipe by thee so still, That erewhile was heard so shrill? Tell me, do thy kine now fail To fulfil the […]

The Resignation by Thomas Chatterton

The Resignation by Thomas Chatterton O God, whose thunder shakes the sky, Whose eye this atom globe surveys, To thee, my only rock, I fly, Thy mercy in thy justice praise. The mystic mazes of thy will, The shadows of celestial light, Are past the pow’r of human skill,– But what th’ Eternal acts is […]

The Methodist by Thomas Chatterton

The Methodist by Thomas Chatterton Says Tom to Jack, ’tis very odd, These representatives of God, In color, way of life and evil, Should be so very like the devil. Jack, understand, was one of those, Who mould religion in the rose, A red hot methodist; his face Was full of puritanic grace, His loose […]

The Death of Nicou by Thomas Chatterton

The Death of Nicou by Thomas Chatterton On Tiber’s banks, Tiber, whose waters glide In slow meanders down to Gaigra’s side; And circling all the horrid mountain round, Rushes impetuous to the deep profound; Rolls o’er the ragged rocks with hideous yell; Collects its waves beneath the earth’s vast shell; There for a while in […]

The Copernican System by Thomas Chatterton

The Copernican System by Thomas Chatterton The Sun revolving on his axis turns, And with creative fire intensely burns; Impell’d by forcive air, our Earth supreme, Rolls with the planets round the solar gleam. First Mercury completes his transient year, Glowing, refulgent, with reflected glare; Bright Venus occupies a wider way, The early harbinger of […]

The Advice by Thomas Chatterton

The Advice by Thomas Chatterton Revolving in their destin’d sphere, The hours begin another year As rapidly to fly; Ah! think, Maria, (e’er in grey Those auburn tresses fade away So youth and beauty die. Tho’ now the captivating throng Adore with flattery and song, And all before you bow; Whilst unattentive to the strain, […]

Song from Aella by Thomas Chatterton

Song from Aella by Thomas Chatterton O SING unto my roundelay, O drop the briny tear with me; Dance no more at holyday, Like a running river be: My love is dead, Gone to his death-bed All under the willow-tree. Black his cryne as the winter night, White his rode as the summer snow, Red […]

Sly Dick by Thomas Chatterton

Sly Dick by Thomas Chatterton Sharp was the frost, the wind was high And sparkling stars bedeckt the sky Sly Dick in arts of cunning skill’d, Whose rapine all his pockets fill’d, Had laid him down to take his rest And soothe with sleep his anxious breast. ‘Twas thus a dark infernal sprite A native […]

Narva and Mored by Thomas Chatterton

Narva and Mored by Thomas Chatterton Recite the loves of Narva and Mored The priest of Chalma’s triple idol said. High from the ground the youthful warriors sprung, Loud on the concave shell the lances rung: In all the mystic mazes of the dance, The youths of Banny’s burning sands advance, Whilst the soft virgin […]

Heccar and Gaira by Thomas Chatterton

Heccar and Gaira by Thomas Chatterton Where the rough Caigra rolls the surgy wave, Urging his thunders thro’ the echoing cave; Where the sharp rocks, in distant horror seen, Drive the white currents thro’ the spreading green; Where the loud tiger, pawing in his rage, Bids the black archers of the wilds engage; Stretch’d on […]

February by Thomas Chatterton

February by Thomas Chatterton Begin, my muse, the imitative lay, Aonian doxies sound the thrumming string; Attempt no number of the plaintive Gay, Let me like midnight cats, or Collins sing. If in the trammels of the doleful line The bounding hail, or drilling rain descend; Come, brooding Melancholy, pow’r divine, And ev’ry unform’d mass […]

Eclogues by Thomas Chatterton

Eclogues by Thomas Chatterton Eclogue the First. Whanne Englonde, smeethynge from her lethal wounde, From her galled necke dyd twytte the chayne awaie, Kennynge her legeful sonnes falle all arounde, (Myghtie theie fell, ’twas Honoure ledde the fraie,) Thanne inne a dale, bie eve’s dark surcote graie, Twayne lonelie shepsterres dyd abrodden flie, (The rostlyng […]

Colin Instructed by Thomas Chatterton

Colin Instructed by Thomas Chatterton Young Colin was as stout a boy As ever gave a maiden joy; But long in vain he told his tale To black-eyed Biddy of the Dale. Ah why, the whining shepherd cried, Am I alone your smiles denied? I only tell in vain my tale To black-eyed Biddy of […]

A New Song by Thomas Chatterton

A New Song by Thomas Chatterton Ah blame me not, Catcott, if from the right way My notions and actions run far. How can my ideas do other but stray, Deprived of their ruling North-Star? A blame me not, Broderip, if mounted aloft, I chatter and spoil the dull air; How can I imagine thy […]

A Hymn for Christmas Day by Thomas Chatterton

A Hymn for Christmas Day by Thomas Chatterton Almighty Framer of the Skies! O let our pure devotion rise, Like Incense in thy Sight! Wrapt in impenetrable Shade The Texture of our Souls were made Till thy Command gave light. The Sun of Glory gleam’d the Ray, Refin’d the Darkness into Day, And bid the […]

The Spring by Thomas Carew

The Spring by Thomas Carew Now that the winter’s gone, the earth hath lost Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream Upon the silver lake or crystal stream; But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth, And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth To […]

The Primrose by Thomas Carew

The Primrose by Thomas Carew Ask me why I send you here The firstling of the infant year; Ask me why I send to you This primrose all bepearled with dew: I straight will whisper in your ears, The sweets of love are washed with tears. Ask me why this flower doth show So yellow, […]

Song. Murdering Beauty by Thomas Carew

Song. Murdering Beauty by Thomas Carew I’LL gaze no more on her bewitching face, Since ruin harbours there in every place ; For my enchanted soul alike she drowns With calms and tempests of her smiles and frowns. I’ll love no more those cruel eyes of hers, Which, pleased or anger’d, still are murderers : […]