BOOK I

SONNETS ON WISDOM

i

An Epigram

My son, hear the instruction of thy father,

And forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head, And chains about thy neck.

ii

The Company of Sinners

A Sonnet

My son, if sinners entice thee,

Consent thou not.

If they say, Come with us,

Let us lay wait for blood,

Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;

Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,

And whole, as those that go down into the pit ;

We shall find all precious substance,
We shall fill our houses with spoil;
Thou shalt cast thy lot among us;
We will all have one purse:

My son, walk not thou in the way with them;
Refrain thy foot from their path:

For their feet run to evil,

And they make haste to shed blood.

For in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird:
And these lay wait for their own blood,

They lurk privily for their own lives.

So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;
It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

iii

Wisdom's Cry of Warning

A Monologue

Wisdom crieth aloud in the street,

She uttereth her voice in the broad places;
She crieth in the chief place of concourse;
At the entering in of the gates,

In the city, she uttereth her words: