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.

That age is best, which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times, still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time;
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

LXXVI.

HIS POETRY HIS PILLAR.

NLY a little more

ONLY

I have to write,

Then I'll give o'er,

And bid the world good-night.

'Tis but a flying minute,

That I must stay,

Or linger in it;

And then I must away.

O time that cutt'st down all !

And scarce leav'st here
Memorial

Of any men that were.

How many lie forgot

In vaults beneath?

And piece-meal rot

Without a fame in death?

Behold this living stone,

I rear for me,

Ne'er to be thrown

Down, envious Time, by thee.

Pillars let some set up,

If so they please,

Here is my hope,

And my Pyramides.

LXXVII.

TO MUSIC, TO BECALM HIS FEVER.

HARM me asleep, and melt me so

CHAR

With thy delicious numbers;

That being ravished, hence I go

Away in easy slumbers.

Ease my sick head,

And make my bed,

Thou Power that canst sever

From me this ill:

And quickly still:

Though thou not kill

My fever.

Thou sweetly canst convert the same

From a consuming fire,

Into a gentle-licking flame,
And make it thus expire.
Then make me weep
My pains asleep;

And give me such reposes,

That I, poor I,

May think, thereby,

I live and die

'Mongst roses.

Fall on me like a silent dew,

Or like those maiden showers, Which, by the peep of day, do strew A baptism o'er the flowers.

Melt, melt my pains,

With thy soft strains;

That having ease me given,
With full delight,

I leave this light;

And take my flight

For heaven.

LXXVIII.

TO ANTHEA, WHO MAY COMMAND HIM ANY THING.

ID me to live, and I will live

BID

Thy Protestant to be:

Or bid me love, and I will give

A loving heart to thee.

A heart as soft, a heart as kind,
A heart as sound and free,

As in the whole world thou canst find,
That heart I'll give to thee.

Bid that heart stay, and it will stay,

To honour thy decree :

Or bid it languish quite away,

And 't shall do so for thee.

Bid me to weep, and I will weep,
While I have eyes to see:

And having none, yet I will keep
A heart to weep for thee.

Bid me despair, and I'll despair,
Under that cypress tree :
Or bid me die, and I will dare
E'en death, to die for thee.

Thou art my life, my love, my heart,
The very eyes of me;

And hast command of every part,

To live and die for thee.

LXXIX.

TO DAFFODILS.

AIR daffodils, we weep to see

FA

You haste away so soon:

As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attained his noon.

Stay, stay,

Until the hasting day

Has run

I