Short Poems

TO ALL POOR SCHOLARS .

Fail ye of wealth, of wealth ye still will fail,
None but fat sows are now greased in the tail.

Being the 11th of December.

Why this day's shorter than the rest,
A modern bard full well has guest,
The sun who shines the year about,
And ev'ry lesser light puts out,
This day submits, and will not rise,
But lends his rays to Stella 's eyes.

Milo lives long in France, and while he's there
His ground bears nought, his wife doth children bear.
Why should th' one barren, th' other fertile be?
His ground lacks ploughing up, so doth not she.

You, holy Night, and you, Lamp, were the only witnesses of the oaths we took; she swore that she would love me and I that I would never leave her; you witnessed our common testimony.
Now she says that the oaths were written in water and you, Lamp, see her in the arms of others!

Beloved Muse, to whom do you bear this many-blossoming song? And who wove this flower-crown of poets? Meleager wrought at it and made it perfect as a gift for remembrance to lovely Diocles, weaving into it many lilies of Anyte and many white lilies of Myro, and Sappho's few, but all roses, the narcissus of Malanippides heavy with song and the young vine shoot of Simonides.

No common womb was fit me forth to bring,
But a pure virgin priest, child to a king:
No mortal father worthy was to breed me;
Nor human milk was fierce enough to feed me.
Therefore the God of war by wonder bred me,
And a she-wolf by no less wonder fed me.
In fine, the Gods, because earth was too base,
T' entomb me dead, did me in heaven place.

When Jack was told, Tom spent his life,
In loving of another's wife;...
That's strange, says J ACK ...why, I'll be sworn,
I do not even love my own!

G AZEL

I began love's art to study, divers chapters did I read;
Longing's texts and parting's sections a whole book would fill indeed;
Union formed a short abridgment, but the pangs of love for thee
Have their commentaries endless made each other to succeed.
O Nish a n i , hath the master, Love, thus truly taught to thee: —
" This a question hard whose answer from the loved one must proceed! "

F RAGMENT

Come is the autumn of my life, alas, it thus should pass away!
I have not reached the dawn of joy, to sorrow's night there is no day.
Time after time the image of her cheek falls on my tear-filled eye;
Ah! no pretension to esteem can shadows in the water lay!
Oh! whither will these winds of Fate impel the frail barque of the heart?
Nor bound nor shore confining girds Time's dreary ocean of dismay!

Two old cocks within the house,
And a dog and cat;
Stony bread, and blunted knife,
Thoughtful husband — wicked wife —
When such blessings dwell together,
Tell me, man of patience, whether
Patience tolerates that.