Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/345

 I

��WILLIAM HABINGTON

Thus those celestial fires,

Though seeming mute, The fallacy of our desires

And all the pride of life confute:

For they have watch'd since first

The World had birth And found bin in itself accurst, And nothing permanent on Earth.

THOMAS RANDOLPH 507 A Devout Lover

HAVE a mistress, for perfections rare In every eye, but m my thoughts most fair. Like tapers on the altai shine her eyes, Her breath is the perfume of sacrifice, And whcrcsoc'er my fancy would begin, Still her perfection lets religion in. We sit and talk, and kiss away the hours As chastely as the morning dews kiss flowers I touch her, like my beads, with devout care, And come unto my courtship as my prayer.

308 An Ode to Master Anthony Stafford to hasten Hun mto the Country

COME, spur away, I have no patience for a longer stay, But must go down

And leave the chargeable noise of this great town' I will the country sec, Where old simplicity,

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