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i
Great things are done when men
and mountains meet;
This is not done by jostling in the street.
ii
To God
If you have form'd a circle to go
into,
Go into it yourself, and see how you would do.
iii
They said this mystery never
shall cease:
The priest promotes war, and the soldier peace.
iv
An Answer to the Parson
Why of the sheep do you not learn
peace?
Because I don't want you to shear
my fleece.
Lacedaemonian Instruction
Come hither, my boy, tell me what
thou seest there.
A fool tangled in a religious snare.
vi
Nail his neck to the cross: nail
it with a nail.
Nail his neck to the cross: ye all have power over his tail.
vii
Love to faults is always blind;
Always is to joy inclin'd,
Lawless, wing'd and unconfin'd,
And breaks all chains from every mind.
Deceit to secrecy confin'd,
Lawful, cautious and refin'd;
To anything but interest blind,
And forges fetters for the mind.
viii
There souls of men are bought and
sold,
And milk-fed Infancy for gold;
And Youth to slaughter-houses led,
And Beauty, for a bit of bread.
ix
Soft
Snow
I walkèd abroad on a snowy day:
I ask'd the soft Snow with me to play:
She play'd and she melted in all her prime;
And the Winter call'd it a dreadful crime.
x
Abstinence sows sand all over
The ruddy limbs and flaming hair,
But Desire gratified
Plants fruits of life and beauty there.
xi
Merlin's Prophecy
The harvest shall flourish in
wintry weather
When two Virginities meet together:
The king and the priest must be tied in a tether
Before two Virgins can meet together.
xii
If you trap the moment before
it's ripe,
The tears of repentance you'll certainly wipe;
But if once you let the ripe moment go,
You can never wipe off the tears of woe.
xiii
An Old Maid early ere I knew
Aught but the love that on me grew;
And now I'm cover'd o'er and o'er,
And wish that I had been a whore.
O! I cannot, cannot find
The undaunted courage of a virgin mind;
For early I in love was crost,
Before my flower of love was lost.
xiv
The sword sung on the barren
heath,
The sickle in the fruitful field:
The sword he sung a song of death,
But could not make the sickle yield.
xv
O lapwing! thou fliest around the
heath,
Nor seest the net that is spread beneath.
Why dost thou not fly among the corn fields?
They cannot spread nets where a harvest yields.
xvi
Terror in the house does roar;
But Pity stands before the door.
xvii
Several Questions Answered
1
Eternity
He who bends to himself a Joy
Doth the wingèd life destroy;
But he who kisses the Joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity's sunrise.
2
The look of love alarms,
Because it's fill'd with fire;
But the look of soft deceit
Shall win the lover's hire.
3
Soft deceit and idleness,
These are Beauty's sweetest dress.
4
The Question answered
What is it men in women do
require?
The lineaments of gratified desire.
What is it women do in men require?
The lineaments of gratified desire.
5
An ancient Proverb
Remove away that black'ning
church,
Remove away that marriage hearse,
Remove away that man of blood --
You'll quite remove the ancient curse.
xviii
If I e'er grow to man's estate,
O! give to me a woman's fate.
May I govern all, both great and small,
Have the last word, and take the wall.
xix
Since all the riches of this
world
May be gifts from the Devil and earthly kings,
I should suspect that I worshipp'd the Devil
If I thank'd my God for worldly things.
xx
Riches
The countless gold of a merry
heart,
The rubies and pearls of a loving eye,
The indolent never can bring to the mart,
Nor the secret hoard up in his treasury.
xxi
The Angel that presided o'er my
birth
Said `Little creature, form'd of joy and mirth,
Go, love without the help of anything on earth.'
xxii
Grown old in love from seven till
seven times seven,
I oft have wish'd for Hell, for ease from Heaven.
xxiii
Do what you will this life's a
fiction,
And is made up of contradiction.
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