Short Poems

Make haste away, and let one be
A friendly Patron unto thee:
Lest rapt from hence, I see thee lye
Torn for the use of Pasterie:
Or see thy injur'd Leaves serve well,
To make loose Gownes for Mackarell:
Or see the Grocers in a trice,
Make hoods of thee to serve out Spice.

Good Figures mock , so the Beholders View ,
As while you look on them, they look on you ;
The Artist , for this Piece , has done no less,
Th' old Mans Eyes fail, he lends him Spectacles .

ON SEEING A FELLOW NODDING IN CHURCH .

This surely is a day of rest;
But better you 'd improve it,
To sink your head upon your breast,
And cease so much to move it.

FATE

Fate, passing over earth one night,
Laid his stern seal on three new lives:
One died a king, one sank in fight,
One wasted in his felon gyves.

LOVE SUPREME

You ask what love is? It is this, my own:
To hold all women pure because of you,
Yet give heart reverence unto you alone,
And for your sake be steadfast, brave, and true.

ANSWERED

A dark, cowled figure knelt before a shrine,
And prayed, " Oh, Father, give my hate its will. "
Then lurid lightnings in the temple shine,
And leave a shadow lying cold and still.

HARVEST-TIME

Winter is keen with wind and white with snow,
And Spring gives blossoms to the orchard trees,
Then wheat-fields ripen in the Summer's glow,
And Autumn harvests all the strength of these.

III

DISCOVERY

Out from the silence of the unknown world,
A whisper falling from invisible lips
Grew a loud challenge through vast distance hurled,
And flecked the ocean with adventurous ships.

A sunshiny shower
Won't last half an hour.

Red sky at night,
Shepherd's delight;
Red sky in the morning,
Shepherd's warning.