WELCOME, WELCOME!

WILLIAM BROWNE.

Born 1590.

Welcome, welcome, do I sing,
Far more welcome than the spring;
He that parteth from you never,
Shall enjoy a spring for ever.

Love that to the voice is near,
Breaking from your ivory pale,
Need not walk abroad to hear
The delightful nightingale.

Welcome, welcome, then I sing

Far more welcome than the spring;
He that parteth from you never,
Shall enjoy a spring for ever.

Love, that looks still on your eyes,
Though the winter have begun

To benumb our arteries,

Shall not want the summers sun.

Welcome, Welcome then I sing.

Love, that still may see your cheeks,
Where all rareness still reposes,

Is a fool, if e'er he seeks

Other lilies, other roses.

Welcome, welcome, then I sing.

Love, to whom your soft lip yields,
And perceives your breath in kissing,
All the odours of the fields,

Never, never, shall be missing.

Welcome, welcome then I sing.

Love that question would anew,
What fair Eden was of old,
Let him rightly study you,
And a brief of that behold.

Welcome, welcome then I sing,
Far more welcome than the spring,
He that parteth from you never,
Shall enjoy a spring for ever.

[From a MS. copy of Browne's Poems in the Lansdowne Collection, printed lately by Sir Egerton Brydges. In 1772 Browne's Works were republished, but with little success, he deserves to be widely known, his Pastorals are the pastorals of nature.]

TO THE VIRGINS, TO MAKE MUCH OF TIME.

ROBERT HERRICK.

Born 1591.

Gather ye rosebuds, while ye may;
Old Time is still a flying;

And this same flower that smiles to day,
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of Heaven, the Sun,
The higher he's a getting,

The sooner will his race be run,

And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best, which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer,
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times, still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

[From "Hesperides, or the works both Humane and Divine of Robert Herrick, Esq. 1648." The idea is taken from Spenser

Gather therefore the rose whilst yet in prime;

For soon comes age that will her pride deflower;
Gather the rose of love while yet is time,

Whilst loving, thou may'st loved be with equal crime.

Faery Queene, Book 2, Canto 12, v. 75.

Mr. Campbell says this Song is "sweetly Anacreontic."]

TO ELECTRA.

ROBERT HERRICK.

'Tis Evening, my sweet,

And dark;-let us meet;

Long time w'ave here been a toying:

And never, as yet

That season could get

Wherein t'ave had an enjoying.

For pity or shame,

Then let not love's flame,

Be ever and ever a spending;

Since now to the port
The path is but short;

And yet our way has no ending.

Time flys away fast,

Our hours do waste:

The while we never remember,

How soon our life, here,

Grow's old with the year,

That dies with the next December.

[From the "Hesperides," &c. p. 227, Ed. 1648.]

TO ANTHEA WHO MAY COMMAND HIM ANY THING.

ROBERT HERRICK.

Bid me to live, and I will live
Thy Protestant to be:

Or bid me love, and I will give
A loving heart to thee.

A heart as soft, a heart as kind,
A heart as sound and free,

As in the whole world thou canst find
That heart I'll give to thee.

Bid that heart stay, and it will stay,

To honour thy decree:

Or bid it languish quite away,

And 't shall do so for thee.

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Bid me to weep, and I will weep,
While I have eyes to see:
And having none, yet I will keep
A heart to weep for thee.

Bid me despair, and I'll despair,
Under that Cypress tree:

Or bid me die and I will dare
E'en death, to die for thee.

Thou art my life, my love, my heart,
The very eyes of me:

And hast command of every part,

To live and die for thee.