Licence my roving hands, and let them go Before, behind, between, above, below.

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.”[The Autumnal]

Out of a fired ship, which by no wayBut drowning could be rescued from the flame,Some men leap’d forth, and ever as they cameNear the foes’ ships, did by their shot decay;So all were lost,...

The Good-MorrowI wonder by my troth, what thou, and IDid, till we lov’d? Were we not wean’d till then?But suck’d on countrey pleasures, childishly?Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den?T’was so; But this, all...

Love, built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.

Doubt wisely; in strange wayTo stand inquiring right, is not to stray;To sleep, or run wrong, is.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appeares, And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest, Where can we finde two better hemispheares Without sharpe North, without declining West? What ever dyes, was...

If ever any beauty I did see,Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.

I am two fools, I know,For loving, and for saying so.

I joy, that in these straits I see my west;

Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to aery thinness beat. If they be two, they are two so As stiff...

A bride, before a “Good-night” could be said,Should vanish from her clothes into her bed,As souls from bodies steal, and are not spied.But now she’s laid; what though she be?Yet there are more delays, for...

Yet nothing can to nothing fall,Nor any place be empty quite;Therefore I think my breast hath allThose pieces still, though they be not unite;And now, as broken glasses showA hundred lesser faces, soMy rags of...

O! I shall soon despair, when I shall seeThat Thou lovest mankind well, yet wilt not choose me,And Satan hates me, yet is loth to lose me.

And to ‘scape stormy days, I choose an everlasting night.

Here lies a she sun, and a he moon there;She gives the best light to his sphere;Or each is both, and all, and soThey unto one another nothing owe;And yet they do, but areSo just...

Up then, fair phoenix bride, frustrate the sun;Thyself from thine affectionTakest warmth enough, and from thine eyeAll lesser birds will take their jollity.Up, up, fair bride, and callThy stars from out their several boxes, takeThy...

Love’s mysteries in souls do grow,But yet the body is his book.

Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail.

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as...

True and false fears let us refrain, Let us love nobly, and live, and add again Years and years unto years, till we attain To write threescore: this is the second of our reign.

Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,For, he tames it, that fetters it in verse.

Death Be Not ProudDeath, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;For those, whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow,Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill...

If our two loves be one, or, thou and I Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

Dear love, for nothing less than theeWould I have broke this happy dream;It was a themeFor reason, much too strong for fantasy,Therefore thou wak’d’st me wisely; yetMy dream thou brok’st not, but continued’st it.Thou art...

Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

How blest am I in this discovering thee!To enter in these bonds is to be free;Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be. Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee,As souls unbodied,...

Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is; Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be; Thou know’st...

Never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

Only our love hath no decay; This no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday, Running it never runs from us away, But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day.

In Heaven, it is always Autumn”.

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so...

At the round earth’s imagined corners blowYour trumpets, angels, and arise, ariseFrom death, you numberless infinitiesOf souls, and to your scattered bodies go ;All whom the flood did, and fire shall o’erthrow,All whom war, dea[r]th,...

Methinks I lied all winter, when I sworeMy love was infinite, if spring makes it more.