Farewell to love and all I see

Farewell to love and all I see
In these dull English skies
For all the world turns round wi' me
Lost in thy two bright eyes

So fare-thee-well—a lover lost
I go where none can blame
And dearly shall I rue the cost
And scarcely keep a name

The little flowers and wild birds song
I leave them far away
In other lands and other tongues
A lonely bard to stray

In other lands I'll think of thee
Nor mortal love adore
The north star must its temple be
Where nought can change no more

The Evening is for Love

The evening is for love As the morning is for toil
Though the fire is from above The pot is got to boil
A hard days work is mine And I'll live wi' care no more
So I'll see dew come to the woodbine at Isabella's door

Wi' hairy leaves and dro[o]ping flowers The canterberry bell
Grows underneath [the] hazle bower By most folks favoured well
Up the bean stalks creeps the snail The moth sleeps down below
The grey mist creep[s] along And I'll a courting go

I'll gang and Isabella see Nor more i'love repine

Save only that faith and reason I've lost, belovéd one

Save only that faith and reason I've lost, belovéd one,
I prithee, come say, what profit From love of thee I've won.

Though grief to the wind hath given The harvest of my life,
By the dust of thy foot, I've never The pact of love fordone!

Though abject I was as the sun-mote, By Love's fair auspice, see,
For wish of thy cheek I've raised me Up even to the sun.

Bring wine, for 'tis now a lifetime That, for salvation's sake,
I sit in the nook of safety And ease and pleasance shun.

I am ready and ever will be

CCXXIX

I am ready and ever will be
To do you service with honesty.
There is nothing that lacks in me
But that I have not.

My poor heart always and my mind
Fixed in yours you shall still find.
To love you best reason doth bind
Although I have not.

And for your sake I would be glad
To have much more than I have had,
The lack whereof doth make me sad
Because I have not.

For I do love ye faithfully
And ye me again right secretly.
Of let there is no cause why

The Birth of Love

'T IS joy to feel the spirit leap
Angelic from its childhood sleep,
Pure as a star, fair as a flower,
Eager with youth's unblasted power;
Where every sense gives soft consent,
To burst into love's element;
To be all touch, all eye, all ear,
And pass into love's burning sphere.

The Message

“Oh, have you not a message, you who come over the sea?
Have you not a message or word at all for me?”

“I have sailed, sailed, sailed where the seas are green and blue,
I've silver, gold and merchandise—but never a word for you.”

“But did you see my love by any way you came?
For if you saw my love, he must have spoke my name.”

“Oh, yes, I saw your love—oh, yes, and he was gay
Riding in his coach-and-six all on his birthday.”

“But when you spoke of me, of me—oh! what was it he said?”

Philador's Ode That He Left with the Despairing Lover

When merry autumn in her prime,
Fruitful mother of swift time,
Had filled Ceres' lap with store
Of vines and corn, and mickle more
Such needful fruits as do grow
From Terra's bosom, here below;
Tityrus did sigh, and see
With heart's grief and eyes' gree,
Eyes and heart both full of woes,
Where Galate his lover goes.
Her mantle was vermillion red;
A gaudy chaplet on her head,
A chaplet that did shroud the beams
That Phoebus on her beauty streams,
For sun itself desir'd to see
So fair a nymph as was she,

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