The Hesperides Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 | Page 9

did refrain
Because his tongue was tied
again.
28. EXPENSES EXHAUST.
Live with a thrifty, not a needy fate;
_Small shots paid often waste a
vast estate_.
_Shots_, debts.
29. LOVE, WHAT IT IS.
Love is a circle that doth restless move
In the same sweet eternity of
love.
30. PRESENCE AND ABSENCE.
When what is lov'd is present, love doth spring;
But being absent,
love lies languishing.
31. NO SPOUSE BUT A SISTER.
A bachelor I will
Live as I have liv'd still,
And never take a wife

To crucify my life;
But this I'll tell ye too,
What now I mean to do:

A sister (in the stead
Of wife) about I'll lead;
Which I will keep
embrac'd,
And kiss, but yet be chaste.
32. THE POMANDER BRACELET.

To me my Julia lately sent
A bracelet richly redolent:
The beads I
kissed, but most lov'd her
That did perfume the pomander.
_Pomander_, a ball of scent.
33. THE SHOE-TYING.
Anthea bade me tie her shoe;
I did; and kissed the instep too:
And
would have kissed unto her knee,
Had not her blush rebuked me.
34. THE CARCANET.
Instead of orient pearls of jet
I sent my love a carcanet;
About her
spotless neck she knit
The lace, to honour me or it:
Then think how
rapt was I to see
My jet t'enthral such ivory.
_Carcanet_, necklace.
_Lace_, any kind of girdle; used here for the
necklace.
35. HIS SAILING FROM JULIA.
When that day comes, whose evening says I'm gone
Unto that watery
desolation,
Devoutly to thy closet-gods then pray
That my wing'd
ship may meet no remora.
Those deities which circum-walk the seas,

And look upon our dreadful passages,
Will from all dangers
re-deliver me
For one drink-offering poured out by thee.
Mercy and
truth live with thee! and forbear
(In my short absence) to unsluice a
tear;
But yet for love's sake let thy lips do this,
Give my dead
picture one engendering kiss:
Work that to life, and let me ever dwell

In thy remembrance, Julia. So farewell.
_Closet-gods_, the Roman Lares.
_Remora_, the sea Lamprey or
suckstone, believed to check the course of ships by clinging to their
keels.
36. HOW THE WALL-FLOWER CAME FIRST, AND WHY SO

CALLED.
Why this flower is now call'd so,
List, sweet maids, and you shall
know.
Understand, this firstling was
Once a brisk and bonnie lass,

Kept as close as Danaë was:
Who a sprightly springall lov'd,
And
to have it fully prov'd,
Up she got upon a wall,
Tempting down to
slide withal:
But the silken twist untied,
So she fell, and, bruis'd,
she died.
Love, in pity of the deed,
And her loving-luckless speed,

Turn'd her to this plant we call
Now _the flower of the wall_.
_Tempting_, trying.
37. WHY FLOWERS CHANGE COLOUR.
These fresh beauties (we can prove)
Once were virgins sick of love.

Turn'd to flowers,--still in some
Colours go and colours come.
38. TO HIS MISTRESS OBJECTING TO HIM NEITHER
TOYING OR TALKING.
You say I love not, 'cause I do not play
Still with your curls, and kiss
the time away.
You blame me too, because I can't devise
Some
sport to please those babies in your eyes:
By love's religion, I must
here confess it,
The most I love when I the least express it.
_Small
griefs find tongues_: full casks are ever found
To give (if any, yet)
but little sound.
_Deep waters noiseless are_; and this we know,

_That chiding streams betray small depth below_.
So, when love
speechless is, she doth express
A depth in love and that depth
bottomless.
Now, since my love is tongueless, know me such
Who
speak but little 'cause I love so much.
_Babies in your eyes_, see Note.
39. UPON THE LOSS OF HIS MISTRESSES.
I have lost, and lately, these
Many dainty mistresses:
Stately Julia,

prime of all:
Sappho next, a principal:
Smooth Anthea for a skin

White, and heaven-like crystalline:
Sweet Electra, and the choice

Myrrha for the lute and voice:
Next Corinna, for her wit,
And the
graceful use of it:
With Perilla: all are gone;
Only Herrick's left
alone
For to number sorrow by
Their departures hence, and die.
40. THE DREAM.
Methought last night Love in an anger came
And brought a rod, so
whipt me with the same;
Myrtle the twigs were, merely to imply

Love strikes, but 'tis with gentle cruelty.
Patient I was: Love pitiful
grew then
And strok'd the stripes, and I was whole again.
Thus, like
a bee, Love gentle still doth bring
Honey to salve where he before did
sting.
42. TO LOVE.
I'm free from thee; and thou no more shalt hear
My puling pipe to
beat against thine ear.
Farewell my shackles, though of pearl they be;

Such precious thraldom ne'er shall fetter me.
He loves his bonds
who, when the first are broke,
Submits his neck unto a second yoke.
43. ON HIMSELF.
Young I was, but now am old,
But I am not yet grown cold;
I can
play, and I can twine
'Bout a virgin like a vine:
In her lap too I can
lie
Melting, and in fancy die;
And return to life if she
Claps my
cheek, or kisseth me:
Thus, and thus it now appears
That our love
outlasts our years.
44. LOVE'S PLAY AT PUSH-PIN.
Love and myself, believe me, on a day
At childish