So then we do anticipate
Our after-fate,

And are alive in the skies,

If thus our lips and eyes

Can speak like spirits unconfined

In Heaven, their earthy bodies left behind.

Richard Lovelace [1618-1658]

SONG TO A FAIR YOUNG LADY, GOING OUT OF THE TOWN IN THE SPRING

Ask not the cause why sullen Spring

So long delays her flowers to bear;
Why warbling birds forget to sing,

And winter storms invert the year:
Chloris is gone; and fate provides
To make it Spring where she resides.

Chloris is gone, the cruel fair;

She cast not back a pitying eye:
But left her lover in despair

To sigh, to languish, and to die:
Ah! how can those fair eyes endure
To give the wounds they will not cure?

Great God of Love, why hast thou made
A face that can all hearts command,
That all religions can invade,

And change the laws of every land?
Where thou hadst placed such power before,
Thou shouldst have made her mercy more.

When Chloris to the temple comes,
Adoring crowds before her fall;
She can restore the dead from tombs
And every life but mine recall,

I only am by Love designed
To be the victim for mankind.

John Dryden [1631-1700]

WRITTEN AT SEA, IN THE FIRST DUTCH WAR (1665), THE NIGHT

BEFORE AN ENGAGEMENT

To all you ladies now at land

We men at sea indite;

But first would have you understand
How hard it is to write:

The Muses now, and Neptune too,
We must implore to write to you-
With a fa, la, la, la, la.

For though the Muses should prove kind,
And fill our empty brain,

Yet if rough Neptune rouse the wind

To wave the azure main,
Our paper, pen, and ink,

Roll

and we,

up and down our ships at sea-
With a fa, la, la, la, la.

Then if we write not by each post,
Think not we are unkind;

Nor yet conclude our ships are lost

By Dutchmen or by wind:

Our tears we'll send a speedier way,

The tide shall bring them twice a day-
With a fa, la, la, la, la.

The King with wonder and surprise
Will swear the seas grow bold,
Because the tides will higher rise
Than e'er they did of old:

But let him know it is our tears
Bring floods of grief to Whitehall stairs-

With a fa, la, la, la, la.

Should foggy Opdam chance to know
Our sad and dismal story,

The Dutch would scorn so weak a foe,
And quit their fort at Goree:

For what resistance can they find

From men who've left their hearts behind?With a fa, la, la, la, la.

Let wind and weather do its worst,

Be you to us but kind;

Let Dutchmen vapor, Spaniards curse,

No sorrow we shall find:

'Tis then no matter how things go,

Or who's our friend, or who's our foe→→
With a fa, la, la, la, la.

To pass our tedious hours away
We throw a merry main,
Or else at serious ombre play:

But why should we in vain
Each other's ruin thus pursue?
We were undone when we left you-
With a fa, la, la, la, la.

But now our fears tempestuous grow
And cast our hopes away;
Whilst you, regardless of our woe,
Sit careless at a play:

Perhaps permit some happier man

To kiss your hand, or flirt your fan-
With a fa, la, la, la, la.

When any mournful tune you hear,

That dies in every note

As if it sighed with each man's care

For being so remote,

Think then how often love we've made

To you, when all those tunes were playedWith a fa, la, la, la, la.

In justice you cannot refuse

To think of our distress,
When we for hopes of honor lose
Our certain happiness:

Black-Eyed Susan

All those designs are but to prove

Ourselves more worthy of your love-
With a fa, la, la, la, la.

And now we've told you all our loves,
And likewise all our fears,
In hopes this declaration moves
Some pity for our tears:

Let's hear of no inconstancy

We have too much of that at sea

With a fa, la, la, la, la.

917

Charles Sackville [1638-1706]

SONG

In vain you tell your parting lover,

You wish fair winds may waft him over.
Alas! what winds can happy prove

That bear me far from what I love?

Alas! what dangers on the main
Can equal those that I sustain

From slighted vows, and cold disdain?

Be gentle, and in pity choose
To wish the wildest tempests loose:
That, thrown again upon the coast,
Where first my shipwrecked heart was lost,
I may once more repeat my pain;
Once more in dying notes complain
Of slighted vows and cold disdain.

Matthew Prior [1664-1721]

BLACK-EYED SUSAN

ALL in the Downs the fleet was moored,
The streamers waving in the wind,
When black-eyed Susan came aboard;

"O! where shall I my true-love find?
Tell me, ye jovial sailors, tell me true
If my sweet William sails among the crew."

William, who high upon the yard
Rocked with the billow to and fro,
Soon as her well-known voice he heard

He sighed, and cast his eyes below:

The cord slides swiftly through his glowing hands, And, quick as lightning, on the deck he stands.

So the sweet lark, high poised in air,

Shuts close his pinions to his breast
If chance his mate's shrill call he hear,
And drops at once into her nest:-
The noblest captain in the British fleet
Might envy William's lip those kisses sweet.

"O Susan, Susan, lovely dear,

My vows shall ever true remain;
Let me kiss off that falling tear;
We only part to meet again.

Change as ye list, ye winds; my heart shall be
The faithful compass that still points to thee.

"Believe not what the landmen say

Who tempt with doubts thy constant mind: They'll tell thee, sailors, when away,

In every port a mistress find:

Yes, yes, believe them when they tell thee so,
For Thou art present wheresoe'er I go.

"If to far India's coast we sail,

Thy eyes are seen in diamonds bright, Thy breath is Afric's spicy gale,

Thy skin is ivory so white.

Thus every beauteous object that I view
Wakes in my soul some charm of lovely Sue.

"Though battle call me from thy arms
Let not my pretty Susan mourn;

Though cannons roar, yet, safe from harms,
William shall to his Dear return.

Love turns aside the balls that round me fly,

Lest precious tears should drop from Susan's eye."