The Hesperides & Noble Numbers Part 5

Here we are all by day; by night we're hurl'd By dreams, each one into a sev'ral world.

58. AMBITION.

In man ambition is the common'st thing; Each one by nature loves to be a king.

59. HIS REQUEST TO JULIA.

Julia, if I chance to die Ere I print my poetry, I most humbly thee desire To commit it to the fire: Better 'twere my book were dead Than to live not perfected.

60. MONEY GETS THE MASTERY.

Fight thou with shafts of silver and o'ercome, When no force else can get the masterdom.

61. THE SCARE-FIRE.

Water, water I desire, Here's a house of flesh on fire; Ope the fountains and the springs, And come all to bucketings: What ye cannot quench pull down; Spoil a house to save a town: Better 'tis that one should fall, Than by one to hazard all.

_Scare-fire_, fire-alarm.

62. UPON SILVIA, A MISTRESS.

When some shall say, Fair once my Silvia was, Thou wilt complain, False now's thy looking-gla.s.s, Which renders that quite tarnished which was green, And priceless now what peerless once had been.

Upon thy form more wrinkles yet will fall, And, coming down, shall make no noise at all.

_Priceless_, valueless.

63. CHEERFULNESS IN CHARITY; OR, THE SWEET SACRIFICE.

'Tis not a thousand bullocks' thighs Can please those heav'nly deities, If the vower don't express In his offering cheerfulness.

65. SWEETNESS IN SACRIFICE.

'Tis not greatness they require To be offer'd up by fire; But 'tis sweetness that doth please Those _Eternal Essences_.

66. STEAM IN SACRIFICE.

If meat the G.o.ds give, I the steam High-towering will devote to them, Whose easy natures like it well, If we the roast have, they the smell.

67. UPON JULIA'S VOICE.

So smooth, so sweet, so silv'ry is thy voice, As, could they hear, the d.a.m.n'd would make no noise, But listen to thee, walking in thy chamber, Melting melodious words to lutes of amber.

_Amber_, used here merely for any rich material: cp. "Treading on amber with their silver feet".

68. AGAIN.

When I thy singing next shall hear, I'll wish I might turn all to ear To drink in notes and numbers such As blessed souls can't hear too much; Then melted down, there let me lie Entranc'd and lost confusedly, And, by thy music stricken mute, Die and be turn'd into a lute.

69. ALL THINGS DECAY AND DIE.

_All things decay with time_: the forest sees The growth and downfall of her aged trees; That timber tall, which threescore l.u.s.ters stood The proud dictator of the state-like wood,-- I mean (the sovereign of all plants) the oak-- Droops, dies, and falls without the cleaver's stroke.

_l.u.s.ters_, the Roman reckoning of five years.

70. THE SUCCESSION OF THE FOUR SWEET MONTHS.

First, April, she with mellow showers Opens the way for early flowers; Then after her comes smiling May, In a more rich and sweet array; Next enters June, and brings us more Gems than those two that went before: Then (lastly) July comes, and she More wealth brings in than all those three.

71. NO SHIPWRECK OF VIRTUE. TO A FRIEND.

Thou sail'st with others in this Argus here; Nor wreck or bulging thou hast cause to fear; But trust to this, my n.o.ble pa.s.senger; Who swims with virtue, he shall still be sure (Ulysses-like) all tempests to endure, And 'midst a thousand gulfs to be secure.

_Bulging_, leaking.

72. UPON HIS SISTER-IN-LAW, MISTRESS ELIZABETH HERRICK.

First, for effusions due unto the dead, My solemn vows have here accomplished: Next, how I love thee, that my grief must tell, Wherein thou liv'st for ever. Dear, farewell.

_Effusions_, drink-offerings.

73. OF LOVE. A SONNET.

How love came in I do not know, Whether by the eye, or ear, or no; Or whether with the soul it came (At first) infused with the same; Whether in part 'tis here or there, Or, like the soul, whole everywhere, This troubles me: but I as well As any other this can tell: That when from hence she does depart The outlet then is from the heart.

74. TO ANTHEA.

Ah, my Anthea! Must my heart still break?

(_Love makes me write, what shame forbids to speak_.) Give me a kiss, and to that kiss a score; Then to that twenty add a hundred more: A thousand to that hundred: so kiss on, To make that thousand up a million.

Treble that million, and when that is done Let's kiss afresh, as when we first begun.

But yet, though love likes well such scenes as these, There is an act that will more fully please: Kissing and glancing, soothing, all make way But to the acting of this private play: Name it I would; but, being blushing red, The rest I'll speak when we meet both in bed.