• Drink to me, only, with thine eyes,
    And I will pledge with mine;
    Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
    And I'll not look for wine.
    The thirst that from the soul doth rise,
    Doth ask a drink divine:
    But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
    I would not change for thine.
    I sent thee, late, a rosy wreath,
    Not so much honouring thee...

  • See the chariot at hand here of Love,
    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...

  • Come live with me and be my love,
    And we will all the pleasures prove,
    That valleys, groves, hills and fields,
    Woods or steepy mountains yields.

    And we will sit upon the rocks,
    Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
    By shallow rivers, to whose falls
    Melodious birds sing madrigals.

    And I will make thee beds of roses,
    And a thousand fragrant...

  • It lies not in our power to love or hate,
    For will in us is overruled by fate.
    When two are stripped, long ere the course begin,
    We wish that one should love, the other win;
    And one especially do we affect
    Of two gold ingots, like in each respect:
    The reason no man knows, let it suffice,
    What we behold is censured by our eyes.
    Where both deliberate, the...

  • My love is like to ice, and I to fire:
    How comes it then that this her cold is so great
    Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
    But harder grows the more I her entreat?
    Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
    Is not allayed by her heart frozen cold,
    But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
    And...

  • One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
    But came the waves and washed it away:
    Again I wrote it with a second hand,
    But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
    Vain man, said she, that dost in vain assay
    A mortal thing so to immortalize!
    For I myself shall like to this decay,
    And eek my name be wiped out likewise.
    Not so (quoth I), let baser...

  • Thou, with thy looks, on whom I look full oft,
    And find therein great cause of deep delight,
    Thy face is fair, thy skin is smooth and soft,
    Thy lips are sweet, thine eyes are clear and bright,
    And every part seems pleasant in my sight;
    Yet wote thou well, those looks have wrought my woe,
    Because I love to look upon them so.

    For first those looks...

  • Diaphenia, like the daffadowndilly,
    White as the sun, fair as the lily,
    Heigh ho, how I do love thee!
    I do love thee as my lambs
    Are belovëd of their dams—
    How blest were I if thou wouldst prove me!

    Diaphenia, like the spreading roses,
    That in thy sweets all sweets incloses,
    Fair sweet, how I do love thee!
    I do love thee as each flower...

  • My lady's presence makes the roses red,
    Because to see her lips they blush for shame.
    The lily's leaves, for envy, pale became,
    And her white hands in them this envy bred.
    The marigold the leaves abroad doth spread,
    Because the sun's and her power is the same.
    The violet of purple colour came.
    Dyed in the blood she made my heart to shed.
    In brief: all...

  • Love not me for comely grace,
    For my pleasing eye or face;
    Nor for any outward part,
    No, nor for my constant heart:
    For those may fail or turn to ill,
    So thou and I shall sever.
    Keep therefore a true woman's eye,
    And love me still, but know not why;
    So hast thou the same reason still
    To doat upon me ever.