Epithalamion To filch away sweet snatches of delight, Ye sons of Venus, play your sports at will! All night therefore attend your merry play, Now none doth hinder you, that say or sing; 1159 Nor will the woods now answer, nor your echo ring. Who is the same, which at my window peeps? Or whose is that fair face that shines so bright? Is it not Cynthia, she that never sleeps, But walks about high heaven all the night? O! fairest goddess, do thou not envy My love with me to spy: For thou likewise didst love, though now unthought, And for a fleece of wool, which privily The Latmian shepherd once unto thee brought, His pleasures with thee wrought. Therefore to us be favorable now; And since of women's labors thou hast charge, Incline thy will to effect our wishful vow, And the chaste womb inform with timely seed, Till which we cease our hopeful hap to sing; And thou, great Juno! which with awful might And the religion of the faith first plight Of women in their smart; Eternally bind thou this lovely band, And thou, glad Genius! in whose gentle hand And the sweet pleasures of their love's delight Till which we cease your further praise to sing; Pour out your blessing on us plenteously, And happy influence upon us rain, That we may raise a large posterity, Which from the earth, which they may long possess Up to your haughty palaces may mount; Song! made in lieu of many ornaments, With which my love should duly have been decked, Ye would not stay your due time to expect, Be unto her a goodly ornament, And for short time an endless monument. Edmund Spenser [1552?-1599] BRIDAL SONG From "The Two Noble Kinsmen" ROSES, their sharp spines being gone, Not royal in their smells alone, The Newly-Wedded But in their hue; Maiden pinks, of odor faint, Daisies smell-less, yet most quaint, Primrose, firstborn child of Ver; Merry springtime's harbinger, With her bells dim; Oxlips in their cradles growing, All dear Nature's children sweet Not an angel of the air, Bird melodious or bird fair, Be absent hence! The crow, the slanderous cuckoo, nor The boding raven, nor chough hoar, May on our bride-house perch or sing, Or with them any discord bring, But from it fly! 1161 John Fletcher (?) [1579-1625] THE NEWLY-WEDDED Now the rite is duly done, Now the word is spoken, From this hour the summer rose Lighter fall to harm us: Fair or foul-on land or sea Come the wind or weather, We shall share together. Death, who friend from friend can part, Brother rend from brother, Closer to each other: We will call his anger play, Deem his dart a feather, When we meet him on our way Hand in hand together. Winthrop Mackworth Praed [1802-1839] "I SAW TWO CLOUDS AT MORNING" I SAW two clouds at morning, Tinged by the rising sun, And in the dawn they floated on, And mingled into one; I thought that morning cloud was blest, It moved so sweetly to the west. I saw two summer currents Flow smoothly to their meeting, And join their course, with silent force, In peace each other greeting; Calm was their course through banks of green, Such be your gentle motion, Till life's last pulse shall beat; Like summer's beam, and summer's stream, Float on, in joy, to meet A calmer sea, where storms shall cease, A purer sky, where all is peace. John Gardiner Calkins Brainard [1796-1828] Holy Matrimony 1163 HOLY MATRIMONY THE Voice that breathed o'er Eden, Still in the pure espousal Of Christian man and maid, For dower of blessed children, For high mysterious union, Which naught on earth may break. Be present, awful Father, As Eve thou gav'st to Adam Be present, Son of Mary, To join their loving hands, As thou didst bind two natures In thine eternal bands: Be present, Holiest Spirit, To bless them as they kneel, Oh, spread thy pure wing o'er them, When onward to thine altar The hallowed path they trace, To cast their crowns before thee In perfect sacrifice, Till to the home of gladness With Christ's own Bride they rise. AMEN. John Keble [1792-1866] |