• Abbreviated from the Original
    HUSH! my dear, lie still, and slumber,
      Holy angels guard thy bed!
    Heavenly blessings without number
      Gently falling on thy head.

    Sleep, my babe; thy food and raiment,
      House and home, thy friends provide;
    All without thy care or payment,
      All thy wants are well supplied.

    How much...

  • How doth the little busy bee
      Improve each shining hour,
    And gather honey all the day
      From every opening flower.

    How skilfully she builds her cell;
      How neat she spreads her wax,
    And labors hard to store it well
      With the sweet food she makes.

    In works of labor or of skill,
      I would be busy too;
    For Satan...

  • Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
      For God hath made them so;
    Let bears and lions growl and fight,
      For ’t is their nature to;

    But, children, you should never let
      Your angry passions rise;
    Your little hands were never made
      To tear each other’s eyes.

    Let love through all your actions run,
      And all your words be...

  • Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
      Old Time is still a flying;
    And this same flower that smiles to-day
      To-morrow will be dying.

    The glorious lamp of Heaven, the sun,
      The higher he ’s a-getting,
    The sooner will his race be run,
      And nearer he ’s to setting.

    The age is best which is the first,
      When youth and blood...

  • So now is come our joyful’st feast;
      Let every man be jolly;
    Each room with ivy-leaves is drest,
      And every post with holly.
    Though some churls at our mirth repine,
    Round your foreheads garlands twine,
    Drown sorrow in a cup of wine,
      And let us all be merry.

    Now all our neighbors’ chimneys smoke,
      And Christmas...

  • Sweet, be not proud of those two eyes,
    Which starlike sparkle in their skies;
    Nor be you proud that you can see
    All hearts your captives, yours yet free.
    Be you not proud of that rich hair,
    Which wantons with the lovesick air;
    Whenas that ruby which you wear,
    Sunk from the tip of your soft ear,
    Will last to be a precious stone...

  • He that loves a rosy cheek,
      Or a coral lip admires,
    Or from starlike eyes doth seek
      Fuel to maintain his fires;
    As old Time makes these decay,
    So his flames must waste away.

    But a smooth and steadfast mind,
      Gentle thoughts, and calm desires,
    Hearts with equal love combined,
      Kindle never-dying fires:—
    ...

  • Fair lady, when you see the grace
    Of beauty in your looking-glass;
    A stately forehead, smooth and high,
    And full of princely majesty;
    A sparkling eye no gem so fair,
    Whose lustre dims the Cyprian star;
    A glorious cheek, divinely sweet,
    Wherein both roses kindly meet;
    A cherry lip that would entice
    Even gods to kiss at any...

  • Phillis is my only joy
      Faithless as the wind or seas;
    Sometimes coming, sometimes coy,
      Yet she never fails to please.
          If with a frown
          I am cast down,
          Phillis, smiling
          And beguiling,
    Makes me happier than before.

    Though, alas! too late I find
      Nothing can her fancy fix;
    Yet the...

  • Out upon it. I have loved
      Three whole days together;
    And am like to love three more,
      If it prove fair weather.

    Time shall moult away his wings,
      Ere he shall discover
    In the whole wide world again
      Such a constant lover.

    But the spite on ’t is, no praise
      Is due at all to me;
    Love with me had made no...