Thou art of what I did intend

The All, and End;

And what was made, was made to meet
Thee, thee my sheet.

Come then, and be to my chaste side
Both bed and bride.

We two, as reliques left, will have
One rest, one grave;

And, hugging close, we need not fear
Lust entering here,

Where all desires are dead or cold,
As is the mould;

And all affections are forgot,

Or trouble not.

Here, here the slaves and prisoners be
From shackles free;

And weeping widows, long opprest,
Do here find rest.

The wronged client ends his laws
Here, and his cause;

Here those long suits of Chancery lie
Quiet, or die;

And all Star-chamber bills do cease,

Or hold their peace.

Here needs no court for our Request
Where all are best ;

All wise, all equal, and all just

Alike i' th' dust.

Nor need we here to fear the frown

Of court or crown;

Where fortune bears no sway o'er things,

There all are kings.

In this securer place we'll keep,

As lull'd asleep;

Or for a little time we'll lie,
As robes laid by,

To be another day re-worn,

Turn'd, but not torn;

Or like old testaments engrost,

Lock'd up, not lost;

And for a-while lie here conceal'd,

To be reveal'd

Next, at that great Platonic year,—

And then meet here.

* 71 *

ANACREONTIC

BORN I was to be old,

And for to die here;
After that, in the mould
Long for to lie here.

But before that day comes,

Still I be bousing;
For I know, in the tombs
There's no carousing.

* 72.

TO LAURELS

A FUNERAL stone

Or verse, I covet none;

Of

But only crave

you that I may have

A sacred laurel springing from my grave

Which being seen
Blest with perpetual green,
May grow to be

Not so much call'd a tree,

As the eternal monument of me.

* 73 *

ON HIMSELF

WEEP for the dead, for they have lost this light;
And weep for me, lost in an endless night :
Or mourn, or make a marble verse for me,

Who writ for many.

Benedicite.

*74*

ON HIMSELF

LOST to the world; lost to myself; alone
Here now I rest under this marble stone,
In depth of silence, heard and seen of none.

-75

TO ROBIN RED-BREAST

LAID out for dead, let thy last kindness be
With leaves and moss-work for to cover me;

And while the wood-nymphs my cold corpse inter,

Sing thou my dirge, sweet-warbling chorister !
For epitaph, in foliage, next write this:
Here, here the tomb of Robin Herrick is!

*76*

THE OLIVE BRANCH

SADLY I walk'd within the field,
To see what comfort it would yield;
And as I went my private way,
An olive-branch before me lay;
And seeing it, I made a stay,
And took it up, and view'd it; then
Kissing the omen, said Amen ;
Be, be it so, and let this be

A divination unto me;

That in short time my woes shall cease,
And love shall crown my end with peace.

*

77.

THE PLAUDITE, OR END OF LIFE

IF after rude and boisterous seas
My wearied pinnace here finds ease;
If so it be I've gain'd the shore,
With safety of a faithful oar ;

If having run iny barque on ground,
Ye see the agéd vessel crown'd ;

What's to be done? but on the sands
Ye dance and sing, and now clap hands.
-The first act's doubtful, but (we say)
It is the last commends the Play.

YE silent shades, whose each tree here
Some relique of a saint doth wear;

Who for some sweet-heart's sake, did prove
The fire and martyrdom of Love :—
Here is the legend of those saints
That died for love, and their complaints;
Their wounded hearts, and names we find
Encarved upon the leaves and rind.
Give way, give way to me, who come
Scorch'd with the self-same martyrdom !
And have deserved as much, Love knows,
As to be canonized 'mongst those

Whose deeds and deaths here written are
Within your Greeny-kalendar.

-By all those virgins' fillets hung

Upon your boughs, and requiems sung