XII

MORNING TEARS

So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not

To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smote The night of dew that on my cheeks down flows:

Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright

Through the transparent bosom of the deep, As doth thy face through tears of mine give light; Thou shinest in every tear that I do weep:

No drop but as a coach doth carry thee;
So ridest thou triumphing in my woe.
Do but behold the tears that swell in me,
And they thy glory through my grief will show :

But do not love thyself; then thou wilt keep
My tears for glasses, and still make me weep.
O Queen of queens! how far dost thou excel,
No thought can think, nor tongue of mortal tell.

XIII

PRAISE OF THE MISTRESS

IF love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to

love?

Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty

vow'd!

Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful

prove;

Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like

osiers bow'd.

Study his bias leaves and makes his book thine

eyes,

Where all those pleasures live that art would

comprehend:

If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall

suffice;

Well learned is that tongue that well can thee

commend,

All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder;

Which is to me some praise that I thy parts

admire.

Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder,

Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet

fire.

Celestial as thou art, O pardon, Love, this wrong, That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly

tongue!

XIV

LOVE THE ONLY STUDENT

STUDY me how to please the eye indeed

By fixing it upon a fairer eye,

Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,
And give him light that it was blinded by.

Study is like the heaven's glorious sun

That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks : Small have continual plodders ever won Save base authority from others' books.

These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights
That give a name to every fixéd star,
Have no more profit of their shining nights

Than those that walk and wot not what they are.

Too much to know is to know nought but fame,
And every godfather can give a name.

XV

DI

THE PERJURIES OF LOVE

ID not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye,
'Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument,

Persuade my heart to this false perjury?

Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment.

A woman I forswore; but I will prove,

Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee: My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;

Thy grace being gain'd cures all disgrace in me.

Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is:

Then thou, fair Sun, which on my earth dost

shine,

Exhalest this vapour-vow; in thee it is:

If broken, then, it is no fault of mine:

If by me broke, what fool is not so wise
To lose an oath, to win a paradise ?