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University of Virginia Library

Poems &c. By James Shirley

Shirley, James (1596-1666)

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[VVhen th'Age groan'd out Thou and thy Muse were gone]

To his unkind M.

To his Mistris.

To his Mistris confined.

Loves Hue and Cry.

[Would you know what's soft? I dare]

To L. for a wreath of Bayes sent.

To the Painter preparing to draw M. M. H.

To a L. who had courted a Lady of much perfection, and after offered his Service to another of an inferiour Beauty and Parts; in confidence that the first would re-accept him.

A Lover that durst not speak to his M.

To one that said his Mistris was old.

Upon his M. Dancing.

Upon his Mistris sad.

A Gentleman in Love with two Ladies.

Melancholy converted.

To a Mistris in whose Letter some Tears were dropt.

Presenting his Mistris with a Bird.

Upon Scarlet and blush coloured Ribbands given by two Ladies.

To his Mistris upon the Bayes withered.

Strephon, Daphne.

Taking leave when his Mistris was to ride.

Love for Enjoying.

Upon the Princes Birth.

To his honoured friend Tho. Stanley Esquire, upon his elegant Poems.

To the E. of S. upon his recovery.

One that loved none but deformed Women.

The Common-Wealth of Birds.

To the Excellent Pattern of Beauty and Vertue, L. El. Co. of Or.

To the H. Lady, D. C. at his departure.

A Letter to the Lady D. S. sent with a New Comedy.

To the never enough Honoured E. of St. on New-yeares day at night, after other entertainment.

To M. Phil. Massenger on his Renegado.

To a L. upon a Looking-Glasse sent.

A Song in a Play called Hide-Parke.

A Mother hearing her child was sick of the Small-Poxe.

Epithalamium. To his Noble Friend, Mr. I. W.

On a black Ribband.

To Gent. that broke their promise of a meeting, made when they drank Claret.

Upon a Gentlewoman that died of a Fever.

Upon the death of G. M.

Upon the death of K. James.

Vpon the death of Sr. Th. Nevill.

An Elegie upon the honourable, fair, and vertuous M. Borlase.

Upon the Death of C. D. Engineere, who died upon service to which he had no command.

Epitaph On the Duke of BUCKINGHAM.

An Elegie upon the truly Honourable Tho. Viscount Savage

Vpon Mr. Charles Beaumont who died of a Consumption.

The Passing Bell.

To the proud M.

Cupid ungodded.

To a Beautiful Lady.

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11

To L. for a wreath of Bayes sent.

Soul of my Muse! what active unknown fire
Already doth thy Delphick wreath inspire?
O'th sudden, how my faculties swell high,
And I am all a powerful Prophesie!
Sleep ye dull Cæsars, Rome will boast in vain
Your glorious Tryumphs, One is in my brain,
Great as all yours, and circled with thy Bayes,
My thoughts take Empire o're all land and seas:
Proof against all the Planets, and the stroke
Of Thunder, I rise up Augustus Oake
Within my guard of Laurel, and made free
From age, look fresh still as my Daphnean Tree.
My Fancie's narrow yet, till I create
For thee another world; and in a state
As free as Innocence, shame all Poets wit,
To climb no higher then Elizium yet,
Where the pale lovers meet, and teach the groves
To sigh, and sing vain legends of their loves;
We will have other flights, and taste such things
Are onely fit for Sainted Queens and Kings.

Musæus, Homer, and ye sacred rest,
Long since beleev'd in your own ashes blest,
Awake, and live again, and having wrote
Our story, wish your other songs forgot,

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And your selves too, but our high Subject must
In spite of death and time, new soul your dust.

What cannot I command? what can a thought
Be now ambitious of, but shall be brought
By vertue of my charme? I will undo
The yeer, and at my pleasure make one new:
All Spring, whose blooming Paradise, but when
I list, shall with one frown wither agen.

Astrologers leave searching the vast skies,
Teach them all fare, Odelia, from thine eyes;
All that was earth resolves, my spirit's free,
I have nothing left now but my Soul and Thee.