FROM "VERSES TO SIR HENRY WOTTON." BE then thine own home, and in thyself dwell; Inn anywhere; continuance maketh Hell. And seeing the snail, which everywhere doth roam, Carrying his own house still, is still at home: Follow (for he's easy pac'd) this snail, Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail. But in the world's sea do not like cork sleep Upon the water's face, nor in the deep Sink like a lead without a line: but as Fishes glide, leaving no print where they pass, Nor making sound, so closely thy course go; Let men dispute whether thou breathe Having from these suck'd all they had of worth And brought home that faith which you carry'd forth, I throughly love: but if myself I've won To know my rules, I have, and you have, Donne. THE MESSAGE. SEND home my long stray'd eyes to me, Fit for no good sight, keep them still. Send home my harmless heart again, Keep it still. 'tis none of mine. Yet send me back my heart and eyes, Or prove as false as thou dost now. SIR EDWARD DYER. 1550-1607. [BORN about 1550, at Sharpham, near Glastonbury; educated at Balliol College, Oxford; ambassador to Denmark, 1589; knighted, 1596; died, 1607.] TO PHILLIS THE FAIR SHEP- My Phillis hath the morning Sun, And Phillis hath morn-waking birds, My Phillis hath prime feathered flow ers, That smile when she treads on them: And Phillis hath a gallant flock That leaps since she doth own them. But Phillis hath too hard a heart, Alas, that she should have it! It yields no mercy to desert Nor grace to those that crave it. Sweet Sun, when thou look'st on, Pray her regard my moan! Sweet birds when you sing to her To yield some pity woo her! Tell her, her beauty dreads one. me. MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS. My mind to me a kingdom is, Such present joys therein I find, That it excels all other bliss That earth affords or grows by kind: Though much I want which most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave. No princely pomp, no wealthy store, No shape to feed a loving eye; I see how plenty [surfeits] oft, And hasty climbers soon do fall; I see that those which are aloft Mishap doth threaten most of all; They get with toil, they keep with fear; Such cares my mind could never bear. EDMUND SPENSER. 1552-1598-9. [EDMUND SPENSER was born in London about 1552. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School: his first poetical performances, translations from Petrarch and Du Bellay, published without his name in a miscellaneous collection, belong to the time of his leaving school in 1569. From that year to 1576 he was at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. In 1579 he was in London, acquainted with Philip Sidney, and in Lord Leicester's household. In 1580 was published, but without his name, The Shepheards Calender; and in the autumn of that year he went to Ireland with Lord Grey of Wilton, as his private secretary. The remainder of his life, with the exception of short visits to England, was spent in Ireland, where he held various subordinate offices, and where he settled on a grant of forfeited land at Kilcolman, in the county of Cork. In 1589 he accompanied Sir Walter Kaleigh to London, and in 1590 published the first three books of The Faerie Queene. In 1591 he returned to Ireland, and a miscellaneous collection of compositions of earlier and later dates (Complaints) was published in London. In June, 1594, he married, and the next year, 1595, he again visited London, and in Jan., 1595-6, published the second instalment of The Faerie Queene (iv-vi). With the same date, 1595, were published his Colin Clouts Come Home again, an account of his visit to the Court in 1589-90, and his Amoretti Sonnets, and an Epithalamion, relating to his courtship and marriage. At the end of 1598 his house was sacked and burnt by the Munster rebels, and he returned in great distress to London. He died at West minster, Jan. 16, 1598-9, and was buried in the Abbey.] |