IF means be none to end my restless care;
If needs I must o'erwhelm'd with sorrow lie:
What better way this sorrow to declare,
Than that I dying live, and cannot die?

If nought but loss I reap instead of gain ;
If lasting pain do every day increase;
To thee, good Death, alas! I must complain;
Thou art of force to make my sorrow cease.

If thou, because I thee refus'd sometime,
Now shut thine ears, and my request deny;
Still must I love, and wail in woeful rhyme,
That dying still I am, and cannot die.

SPIRO NON VIVO.

THE PASSIONATE PRISONER.1

YE walls that shut me up from sight of men,
Inclos'd wherein alive I buried lie ;

And thou sometime my bed, but now my den,
Where, smothered up, the light of sun I fly :

k This line is omitted in the first edition.

1 Ibid.

Oh! shut yourselves; each chink and crevice strain, That none but you may hear me thus complain.

My hollow cries that beat thy stony side,
Vouchsafe to beat, but beat them back again;
That when my grief hath speech to me denied,
Mine ears may hear the witness of my pain.
As for my tears, whose streams must ever last,
My silent couch shall drink them up as fast.

HOPELESS DESIRE SOON WITHERS AND DIES.

THOUGH naked trees seem dead to sight,
When Winter wind doth keenly blow;
Yet if the root maintain her right,
The Spring their hidden life will show.
But if the root be dead and dry,
No marvel though the branches die.

While hope did live within my breast,
No Winter storm could kill desire;
But now disdain hath hope opprest,
Dead is the root, dead is the spire.

m

Hope was the root, and " spire was love;
No sap beneath, no life above.

m the.-edit. 1608.

And as we see the rootless stock
Retain some sap, and spring awhile;
Yet quickly prove a lifeless block,
Because the root doth life beguile :
So lives desire, which hope hath left;
As twilight shines when sun is reft.

ODE XII.

TO HIS HEART.

NAY, nay; thou striv'st in vain, my heart, To mend thy miss:

Thou hast deserv'd to bear this smart,

And worse than this;

That would'st thyself debase,

To serve in such a place.

Thou thought'st thyself too long at rest;
Such was thy pride;

Needs must thou seek another breast,
Wherein to bide.

Say now what hast thou found?
In fetters thou art bound.

What hath thy faithful service won,
But high disdain ?

Broke is thy" thread; thy fancy spun;
Thy labour vain.

Fall'n art thou now with pain,
And canst not rise again.

And canst thou look for help of me,
In this distress?

I must confess I pity thee,
And can no less.

But bear awhile thy pain,
For fear thou fall again.

Learn by thy hurt to shun the fire,
Play not withal;

When climbing thoughts high things aspire,
They seek their fall.

Thou ween'st nought shone but gold;
So wast thou blind and bold.

Yet lie not for this disgrace,

But mount again;

So that thou know the wished place,
Be worth thy pain.

Then though thou fall and die,
Yet never fear to fly.

n the. edit. 1602.

PHALEUCIACKS. III.

WISDOM warns me to shun that once I sought for,
And in time to retire my hasty footsteps:
Wisdom sent from above, not earthly wisdom :
Long, too long have I slept in ease uneasy;

On false worldly relief my trust reposing:

Health and wealth in a boat, no stern, nor anchor;
Bold and blind that I was, to sea be-taking,

Scarce from shore had I launch'd, when all about me,
Waves like hills did arise, till help from Heaven
Brought my ship to the port of late repentance.

O NAVIS, REFERENT IN MARE TE NOVI FLUCTUS.

p

ODE XIII.

A DEFIANCE TO DISDAINFUL LOVE. 9

Now have I learn'd with much ado at last,
By true disdain to kill desire:

This was the mark at which I shot so fast;

Unto this height I did aspire. Proud Love, now do thy worst, and

spare not; For thee and all thy shafts I care not.

from the shore.-edit. 1621.

P This line is omitted in the fourth edition.

This title is omitted in the first edition.