Anonymous

Beauty's self

My love in her attire doth show her wit,
It doth so well become her;
For every season she hath dressings fit,
For Winter, Spring, and Summer.
No beauty she doth miss
When all her robes are on:
But Beauty's self she is
When all her robes are gone.

On Sir Walter Rawleigh at His Execution

Great heart, who taught thee so to die,
Death yielding thee the victory?
Where took'st thou leave of life? If there,
How couldst thou be so freed from fear?
But sure thou diedst and quitst the state
Of flesh and blood before thy fate.
Else what a miracle were wrought,
To triumph both in flesh and thought!
I saw in every stander-by
Pale death, life only in thine eye:
The example that thou leftst was then,
We look for when thou diest again.
Farewell! Truth shall thy story say:
We died, thou only livedst that day.

Thule

Thule, the period of cosmography,
Doth vaunt of Hecla, whose sulphureous fire
Doth melt the frozen clime and thaw the sky;
Trinacrian Etna's flames ascend not higher:
These things seem wondrous, yet more wondrous I,
Whose heart with fear doth freeze, with love doth fry.

The Andalusian merchant that returns
Laden with cochineal and china dishes,
Reports in Spain how strangely Fogo burns
Amidst an ocean full of flying fishes:
These things seem wondrous, yet more wondrous I,
Whose heart with fear doth freeze, with love doth fry.

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