English poetry

English Poems – Page 20

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Sonnetsxviii

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds, …

William Shakespeare
Sonnetsxix

Th' expense of Spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, …

William Shakespeare
Sonnetsxx

Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth—
My sinful earth these rebel powers array—
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth, …

William Shakespeare
Lullaby

Upon my lap my sovereign sits
And sucks upon my breast;
Meantime his love maintains my life …

Richard Rowlands
Spring

Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king;
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing— …

Thomas Nashe
In Time of Pestilence1593

Adieu, farewell earth's bliss!
This world uncertain is:
Fond are life's lustful joys, …

Thomas Nashe
Laura

Rose-cheek'd Laura, come;
Sing thou smoothly with thy beauty's
Silent music, either other …

Thomas Campion
Devotioni

Follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow!
Though thou be black as night,
And she made all of light, …

Thomas Campion
Devotionii

Follow your saint, follow with accents sweet!
Haste you, sad notes, fall at her flying feet!
There, wrapt in cloud of sorrow, pity move, …

Thomas Campion
Vobiscum est Iope

When thou must home to shades of underground,
And there arrived, a new admirèd guest,
The beauteous spirits do engirt thee round, …

Thomas Campion
A Hymn in Praise of Neptune

Of Neptune's empire let us sing,
At whose command the waves obey;
To whom the rivers tribute pay, …

Thomas Campion
Winter Nights

Now winter nights enlarge
The number of their hours,
And clouds their storms discharge …

Thomas Campion
Integer Vitae

The man of life upright,
Whose guiltless heart is free
From all dishonest deeds, …

Thomas Campion
O come quickly!

Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore,
Never tirèd pilgrim's limbs affected slumber more,
Than my wearied sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled breast: …

Thomas Campion
A Nosegay

Say, crimson Rose and dainty Daffodil,
With Violet blue;
Since you have seen the beauty of my saint, …

John Reynolds
The Character of a Happy Life

How happy is he born and taught
That serveth not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought, …

Sir Henry Wotton
Upon the Death of Sir Albert Morton's Wife

He first deceased; she for a little tried
To live without him, liked it not, and died.

Sir Henry Wotton
Man

I KNOW my soul hath power to know all things,
Yet she is blind and ignorant in all:
I know I'm one of Nature's little kings, …

Sir John Davies
To His Forsaken Mistress

I DO confess thou'rt smooth and fair,
And I might have gone near to love thee,
Had I not found the slightest prayer …

Sir Robert Ayton
To an Inconstant One

I LOVED thee once; I'll love no more—
Thine be the grief as is the blame;
Thou art not what thou wast before, …

Sir Robert Ayton