Robert Herrick

"Good precepts we must firmly hold,     By daily learning we wax old."

"Can I not come to Thee, my God, for these     So very many meeting hindrances,     That slack my pace, but yet not make me stay?     Who slowly"

"Bad are all surfeits; but physicians call     That surfeit took by bread the worst of all."

"Trap of a player turn'd a priest now is:     Behold a sudden metamorphosis.     If tithe-pigs fail, then will he shift the scene,     And from"

"Did I or love, or could I others draw     To the indulgence of the rugged law,     The first foundation of that zeal should be     By reading a"

"What others have with cheapness seen and ease     In varnish'd maps, by th' help of compasses,     Or read in volumes and those books with all"

"Puss and her 'prentice both at drawgloves play;     That done, they kiss, and so draw out the day:     At night they draw to supper; then well f"

"Love in a shower of blossoms came Down, and half drown'd me with the same; The blooms that fell were white and red; But with such sweets commingled"

"If wholesome diet can recure a man,     What need of physic or physician?"

"Whether I was myself, or else did see     Out of myself that glorious hierarchy;     Or whether those, in orders rare, or these     Made up one"

"When laws full power have to sway, we see     Little or no part there of tyranny."

"When winds and seas do rage     And threaten to undo me,     Thou dost, their wrath assuage     If I but call unto Thee.     A mighty storm l"

"'Tis heresy in others: in your face     That scar's no schism, but the sign of grace."

"Thou bidst me come away, And I'll no longer stay, Than for to shed some tears For faults of former years; And to repent some crimes Done in the p"

"Love scorched my finger, but did spare The burning of my heart, To signify in love my share Should be a little part. Little I love, but if that h"

"Readers, we entreat ye pray     For the soul of Lucia;     That in little time she be     From her purgatory free:     In the interim she desi"

"That morn which saw me made a bride,     The evening witness'd that I died.     Those holy lights, wherewith they guide     Unto the bed the ba"

"Milk still your fountains and your springs: for why?     The more th'are drawn, the less they will grow dry."

"Thou know'st, my Julia, that it is thy turn     This morning's incense to prepare and burn.     The chaplet and Inarculum[L] here be,     With"

"When I a ship see on the seas,     Cuff'd with those wat'ry savages,     And therewithal behold it hath     In all that way no beaten path,"

"Why, Madam, will ye longer weep, Whenas your baby's lull'd asleep? And, pretty child, feels now no more Those pains it lately felt before. All no"

"Shark, when he goes to any public feast,     Eats to one's thinking, of all there, the least.     What saves the master of the house thereby"

"Get up, get up for shame, the blooming Morn Upon her wings presents the god unshorn. See how Aurora throws her fair Fresh-quilted colours through t"

"I would to God, that mine old age might have Before my last, but here a living grave; Some one poor almshouse, there to lie, or stir, Ghost-like, a"

"By the next kindling of the day,     My Julia, thou shalt see,     Ere Ave-Mary thou canst say     I'll come and visit thee.     Yet ere thou"

"Tell me, young man, or did the Muses bring     Thee less to taste than to drink up their spring,     That none hereafter should be thought, or b"

"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"

"Christ was not sad, i' th' garden, for His own     Passion, but for His sheep's dispersion."

"Nothing is new; we walk where others went;     There's no vice now but has his precedent."

"To an old sore a long cure must go on:     Great faults require great satisfaction."

"When I behold a forest spread With silken trees upon thy head; And when I see that other dress Of flowers set in comeliness; When I behold another"

"Tom Blinks his nose is full of weals, and these     Tom calls not pimples, but pimpleides;     Sometimes, in mirth, he says each whelk's a spark"

"We pray 'gainst war, yet we enjoy no peace;     Desire deferr'd is that it may increase."

"Here she lies, in bed of spice, Fair as Eve in paradise; For her beauty, it was such, Poets could not praise too much. Virgins come, and in a ring"

"True mirth resides not in the smiling skin; The sweetest solace is to act no sin."

"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! An"

"My faithful friend, if you can see The fruit to grow up, or the tree; If you can see the colour come Into the blushing pear or plum; If you can se"

"What though the sea be calm? Trust to the shore; Ships have been drown'd, where late they danced before."

"To house the hag, you must do this:     Commix with meal a little piss     Of him bewitch'd; then forthwith make     A little wafer or a cake;"

"Put off Thy robe of purple, then go on     To the sad place of execution:     Thine hour is come, and the tormentor stands     Ready to pierce"

"Who plants an olive, but to eat the oil?     Reward, we know, is the chief end of toil."

"Thou say'st my lines are hard,     And I the truth will tell -     They are both hard and marr'd     If thou not read'st them well."

"This axiom I have often heard,     Kings ought to be more lov'd than fear'd."

"For ropes of pearl, first Madam Ursly shows     A chain of corns picked from her ears and toes;     Then, next, to match Tradescant's curious sh"

"What though the heaven be lowering now,     And look with a contracted brow?     We shall discover, by-and-by,     A repurgation of the sky;"

"God could have made all rich, or all men poor;     But why He did not, let me tell wherefore:     Had all been rich, where then had patience bee"

"Come thou, who art the wine and wit Of all I've writ; The grace, the glory, and the best Piece of the rest; Thou art of what I did intend The All"

"We two are last in hell; what may we fear To be tormented or kept pris'ners here Alas!    if kissing be of plagues the worst, We'll wish in hell we"

"And as time past when Cato the severe     Enter'd the circumspacious theatre,     In reverence of his person everyone     Stood as he had been"

"Studies themselves will languish and decay,     When either price or praise is ta'en away."

"Night hath no wings, to him that cannot sleep; And Time seems then, not for to fly, but creep; Slowly her chariot drives as if that she Had broke h"

"Help me! help me! now I call     To my pretty witchcrafts all;     Old I am, and cannot do     That I was accustomed to.     Bring your magics"

"Twilight no other thing is, poets say,     Than the last part of night and first of day."

"He that may sin, sins least: leave to transgress     Enfeebles much the seeds of wickedness."

"Last night I drew up mine account,     And found my debits to amount     To such a height, as for to tell     How I should pay 's impossible."

"This day is yours, great Charles! and in this war     Your fate, and ours, alike victorious are.     In her white stole now Victory does rest"

"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 devic"

"For all our works a recompence is sure; 'Tis sweet to think on what was hard t'endure."

"First, Jolly's wife is lame; then next loose-hipp'd:     Squint-ey'd, hook-nos'd; and lastly, kidney-lipp'd."

"My soul would one day go and seek For roses, and in Julia's cheek A richess of those sweets she found, As in another Rosamond; But gathering roses"