Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/245

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��THOMAS CAMPION

184 Winter Nights

rOW winter nights enlarge

The number of their hours, And clouds their storms discharge

Upon the airy toweis. Let now the chimneys blaze

And cups overflow with wine; Let well-tuned words amaze

With harmony divine. Now yellow waxen lights

Shall wait on honey love,

While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights Sleep's leaden spells remove.

This time doth well dispense

With lovers' long discourse; Much speech hath some defence,

Though beauty no remorse. All do not all things well ,

Some measures comely tread, Some knotted riddles tell,

Some poems smoothly read. The summer hath his joys,

And winter his delights;

Though love and all his pleasures are but toys, They shorten tedious nights.

��185 Integer Vitae

\HE man of life upright, Whose guiltless heart is free From all dishonest deeds, Or thought of vanity,

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