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THE TRIUMPH

And whilst our souls negotiate there,
We like sepulchral statues lay;
All day the same our postures were,
And we said nothing, all the day.

JOHN DONNE

The Triumph

EE the Chariot at hand here of Love,

SEE

Wherein my Lady rideth!

Each that draws is a swan or a dove,

And well the car Love guideth.

As she goes, all hearts do duty
Unto her beauty;

And enamour'd do wish, so they might

But enjoy such a sight,

That they still were to run by her side,
Through swords, through seas, whither she would ride.

Do but look on her eyes, they do light

All that Love's world compriseth! Do but look on her hair, it is bright

As Love's star when it riseth!

Do but mark, her forehead's smoother

Than words that soothe her; And from her arch'd brows such a grace Sheds itself through the face,

As alone there triumphs to the life

All the gain, all the good, of the elements' strife.

THE VINE

Have you seen but a bright lily grow
Before rude hands have touch'd it?
Have you mark'd but the fall of the snow
Before the soil hath smutch'd it?
Have you felt the wool of beaver,
Or swan's down ever?

Or have smelt o' the bud o' the brier,
Or the nard in the fire?

Or have tasted the bag of the bee?

O so white, O so soft, O so sweet is she!

BEN JONSON

The Vine

HE wine of Love is music,

THE

And the feast of Love is song:

And when Love sits down to the banquet,

Love sits long:

Sits long and arises drunken,

But not with the feast and the wine;

He reeleth with his own heart,

That great, rich Vine.

JAMES THOMSON

MARRIAGE AND CHILDREN

A FRIEND and companion never meet amiss but above both is wife with her husband.

Ecclesiasticus

Οὐ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ γε κρεῖσσον καὶ ἄρειον ἢ ὅθ ̓ ὁμοφρονέοντε νοήμασιν οἶκον ἔκητον ἀνὴρ ἠδὲ γυνή.

HOMER

MARRIAGE has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

JOHNSON, Rasselas

THIS ring, so worn as you behold,

So thin, so pale, is yet of gold :
The passion such it was to prove—

Worn with life's care, love yet was love.

GEORGE CRABBE

CHILDREN Sweeten labours; but they make Misfortunes more bitter. They increase the Cares of Life; but they mitigate the Remembrance of Death.

GLAD sight wherever new with old

Is join'd through some dear homeborn tie!
The life of all that we behold

Depends upon that mystery.

BACON

WORDSWORTH

Praise of Women

No thyng ys to man so dere

As wommanys love in good manère.

A gode womman is mannys blys,
There her love right and stedfast ys.
There ys no solas under hevene
Of alle that a man may nevene
That shulde a man so mochë glew
As a gode womman that loveth true.
Ne derer is none in Goddis hurde

Than a chaste womman with lovely worde.

ROBERT MANNYNG OF BRUNNE

Epithalamion

E learnèd sisters, which have oftentimes

YE

Beene to me ayding, others to adorne, Whom ye thought worthy of your gracefull rymes, That even the greatest did not greatly scorne To heare theyr names sung in your simple layes, But joyèd in theyr praise;

And when ye list your owne mishaps to mourne,

Which death, or love, or fortunes wreck did rayse,
Your string could soone to sadder tenor turne,
And teach the woods and waters to lament

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