Abraham Cowley

"Nothing so soon the drooping spirits can raise As praises from the men, whom all men praise."

"Who lets slip Fortune, her shall never find, Occasion once passed by, is bald behind."

"Love in her sunny eyes does basking play; Love walks the pleasant mazes of her hair; Love does on both her lips for ever stray; And sows and reaps a thousand kisses there. In all her outward parts Love's always seen; But, oh, he never went within."

"The world's a scene of changes, and to be Constant, in Nature were inconstancy."

"Lukewarmness I account a sin As great in love as in religion."

"Well then; I now do plainly see This busy world and I shall ne'er agree; The very honey of all earthly joy Does of all meats the soonest cloy, And they (methinks) deserve my pity, Who for it can endure the stings, The crowd, and buzz, and murmurings Of this great hive, the city."

"Ah, yet, ere I descend to th' grave May I a small house, and large garden have! And a few friends, and many books, both true, Both wise, and both delightful too! And since Love ne'er will from mee flee, A mistress moderately fair, And good as guardian angels are, Only belov'd, and loving me!"

"What shall I do to be forever known, And make the age to come my own?"

"Fond archer, Hope! who tak'st thy aim so far, That still or short, or wide thine arrows are!"

"Why to mute fish should'st thou thyself discover And not to me, thy no less silent lover?"

"Th' adorning thee with so much art Is but a barb'rous skill; 'Tis like the pois'ning of a dart, Too apt before to kill."

"Hope, of all ills that men endure, The only cheap and universal cure."

"Beauty, thou wild fantastic ape Who dost in every country change thy shape!"

"Life is an incurable disease."

"We spent them not in toys, in lusts, or wine, But search of deep philosophy, Wit, eloquence, and poetry; Arts which I lov'd, for they, my friend, were thine."

"Ye fields of Cambridge, our dear Cambridge, say, Have ye not seen us walking every day? Was there a tree about which did not know The love betwixt us two?"

"Poet and Saint! to thee alone are given The two most sacred names of Earth and Heaven."

"Thou Wert living the same poet which thou'rt now, Whilst Angels sing to thee their airs divine, And joy in an applause so great as thine. Equal society with them to hold, Thou need'st not make new aongs, but say the old."

"Hail, Bard triumphant! and some care bestow On us, the Poets Militant below!"

"His faith, perhaps, in some nice tenets might Be wrong; his life, I'm sure, was in the right."

"Words that weep and tears that speak."

"The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, And drinks, and gapes for drink again; The plants suck in the earth, and are With constant drinking fresh and fair."

"Fill all the glasses there, for why Should every creature drink but I? Why, man of morals, tell me why?"

"A mighty pain to love it is, And 't is a pain that pain to miss; But of all pains, the greatest pain It is to love, but love in vain."

"I sing the Man who Judahs Scepter bore In that right hand which held the Crook before; Who from best Poet, best of Kings did grow; The two chief gifts Heav'n could on Man bestow."

"Ev'en Thou my breast with such blest rage inspire, As mov'd the tuneful strings of Davids Lyre"

"Lo, this great work, a Temple to thy praise, On polisht Pillars of strong Verse I raise! A Temple, where if Thou vouchsafe to dwell, It Solomons, and Herods shall excel. Too long the Muses-Land have Heathen bin; Their Gods too long were Dev'ils, and Vertues Sin; But Thou, Eternal Word, hast call'd forth Me Th' Apostle, to convert that World to Thee;"

"Well did he know how Palms by oppression speed, Victorious, and the Victors sacred Meed! The Burden lifts them higher. Well did he know, How a tame stream does wild and dangerous grow By unjust force; he now with wanton play, Kisses the smiling Banks, and glides But his known Channel stopt, begins to roare, And swell with rage, and buffet the dull shore. His mutinous waters hurry to the War, And Troops of Waves come rolling from afar. Then scorns he such weak stops to his free source, And overruns the neighboring fields with violent course."

"Here Lucifer the mighty Captive reigns; Proud, 'midst his Woes, and Tyrant in his Chains."

"Unable to corrupt, seek to destroy; And where their Poysons miss, the Sword employ."

"He saw the beauties of his shape and face, His female sweetness, and his manly grace"

"Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal now does always last."

"Such was Gods Poem, this Worlds new Essay; So wild and rude in its first draught it lay; Th' ungovern'd parts no Correspondence knew, An artless war from thwarting Motions grew; Till they to Number and fixt Rules were brought By the eternal Minds Poetique Thought. Water and Air he for the Tenor chose, Earth made the Base, the Treble Flame arose, To th' active Moon a quick brisk stroke he gave, To Saturns string a touch more soft and grave. The motions Strait, and Round, and Swift, and Slow, And Short, and Long, were mixt and woven so, Did in such artful Figures smoothly fall, As made this decent measur'd Dance of All."

"When Israel was from bondage led, Led by the Almighty's hand From out of foreign land, The great sea beheld and fled."

"An harmless flaming meteor shone for hair, And fell adown his shoulders with loose care."

"Thus each extream to equal danger tends, Plenty as well as Want can separate Friends;"

"Awake, awake, my Lyre! And tell thy silent master's humble tale In sounds that may prevail; Sounds that gentle thoughts inspire: Though so exalted she And I so lowly be Tell her, such different notes make all thy harmony."

"His time is forever, everywhere his place."

"To be a husbandman, is but a retreat from the city; to be a philosopher, from the world; or rather, a retreat from the world, as it is man's, into the world, as it is God's."

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life only to the culture of them and the study of nature, And there (with no design beyond my wall) whole and entire to lie, In no unactive ease, and no unglorious poverty."

"The fairest garden in her looks, And in her mind the wisest books."

"God the first garden made, and the first city Cain."

"To virgin minds, which yet their native whiteness hold, Not yet discoloured with the love of gold (That jaundice of the soul, Which makes it look so gilded and so foul)"

"If of their pleasures and desires no end be found; God to their cares and fears will set no bound. What would content you? Who can tell? Ye fear so much to lose what you have got As if ye liked it well. Ye strive for more, as if ye liked it not."

"Let but thy wicked men from out thee go, And all the fools that crowd thee so, Even thou, who dost thy millions boast, A village less than Islington wilt grow, A solitude almost."

"The monster London laugh at me."

"We griev'd, we sigh'd, we wept; we never blush'd before."

"This only grant me, that my means may lie Too low for envy, for contempt too high."

"Acquaintance I would have, but when't depends Not on the number, but the choice of friends."

"Thus would I double my life's fading space; For he that runs it well, runs twice his race."