When my love becomes
All-powerful,
I turn inside out
My garments of the night,
Night dark as leopard-flower.

When my life was thrifty, thrifty,
Soon my one sheep grew to fifty;
After that I lived for fun
And found my flock was back to one.

When Lesbia first I saw so heavn'ly Fair,
With Eyes so bright, and with that awful Air,
I thought my Heart, which durst so high aspire,
As bold as his, who snatch'd Celestial Fire.
But soon as e'er the beauteous Idiot spoke,
Forth from her Coral Lips such Folly broke,
Like Balm the trickling Nonsense heal'd my Wound,
And what her Eyes enthral'd, her Tongue unbound.

When Jill complains to Jack for want of meat,
Jack kisses Jill, and bids her freely eat.
Jill says, "Of what?' Says Jack, "On that sweet kiss,
Which full of nectar and ambrosia is,
The food of poets.' "So I thought,' says Jill.
"That makes them look so lank, so ghost-like still.
Let poets feed on air, or what they will;
Let me feed full, till that I fart', says Jill.

When it is past — the golden moment — gone!
How we do rend ourselves, undone, forlorn!
The jewel left a moment in our hands,
We search, yet find it not o'er widest lands.

When Israel's daughters mourn'd their past offences,
They dealt in sackcloth, and turn'd cinder-wenches:
But Richmond's fair-ones never spoil their locks,
They use white powder, and wear holland smocks.
O comely church! where females find clean linen
As decent to repent in, as to sin in.

Sheer fiction,
that autumn nights are longer —
we've hardly met
and before we know it
dawn's breaking through!

When in danger or in doubt,
Run in circles, scream and shout.

When I wiped you from
the book of memory
I did not know I was striking
out half my life.

When I was in the garden,
I saw a great Queen Bee;
She was the very largest one
That I did ever see.
She wore a shiny helmet
And a lovely velvet gown,
But I was rather sad, because
She didn't wear a crown.