107 quotes
Most glorious Lord of lyfe that on this day,
Didst make thy triumph over death and sin:
And, having harrowd hell, didst bring away,
Captivity thence captive, us to win.
Amoretti (1595)
Goe to my Love where she is carelesse layd
Yet in her winter's bowere not well awake;
Tell her the joyous time will not be staid
Unlesse she doe him by the forelock take.
Fresh spring the herald of loves mighty king,
In whose cote armour richly are displayd
All sorts of flowers the which on earth do spring
In goodly colours gloriously arrayd.
Amoretti (1595)
Through knowledge we behold the world's creation,
How in his cradle first he fostered was;
And judge of Nature's cunning operation,
How things she formed of a formless mass.
For take thy ballaunce if thou be so wise,
And weigh the winde that under heaven doth blow;
Or weigh the light that in the east doth rise;
Or weigh the thought that from man's mind doth flow.
Is not short paine well borne, that brings long ease,
And layes the soul to sleepe in quiet grave?
Sleepe after toyle, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, death after life does greatly please.
The Faerie Queene (1589)
So now they have made our English tongue, a gallimaufray or hodgepodge of al other speches.
The Shepheardes Calender (1579)
Sweete Themmes runne softly, till I end my Song.
Prothalamion (1596)
The paynefull smith, with force of fervent heat,
The hardest yron soone doth mollify,
That with his heavy sledge he can it beat,
And fashion it to what he it list apply.
Yet was he but a squire of low degree.
But nowe sadde winter welked hath the day,
And Phoebus, weary of his yerely taske,
Ystabled hath his steeds in lowly laye,
And taken up his ynne in Fishes haske.
Wake now my loue, awake; for it is time,
The Rosy Morne long since left Tithones bed,
All ready to her siluer coche to clyme,
And Phœbus gins to shew his glorious hed.
Epithalamion (1595)
Ne let the Pouke, nor other evill sprights,
Ne let mischievous witches with their charmes,
Ne let hob goblins, names whose sence we see not,
Fray us with things that be not.
Epithalamion (1595)
What more felicitie can fall to creature
Than to enjoy delight with libertie,
And to be lord of all the workes of Nature,
To raine in th' aire from earth to highest skie,
To feed on flowres and weeds of glorious feature.
Complaints (1591)
So let us love, deare Love, lyke as we ought;
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.
Amoretti (1595)
No daintie flowre or herbe that growes on grownd,
No arborett with painted blossoms drest
And smelling sweete, but there it might be fownd
To bud out faire, and throwe her sweete smels al arownd.
The Faerie Queene (1589)
A gentle youth, his dearely lovèd squire,
His speare of heben wood behind him bare,
Whose harmefull head, thrice heated in the fire,
Had riven many a brest with pikehead square.
Bring therefore all the forces that ye may,
And lay incessant battery to her heart;
Playnts, prayers, vowes, truth, sorrow, and dismay;
Those engins can the proudest love convert:
And, if those fayle, fall down and dy before her;
So dying live, and living do adore her.
Full little knowest thou that hast not tried,
What hell it is in suing long to bide:
To loose good dayes, that might be better spent;
To waste long nights in pensive discontent;
To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;
To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow.
Calm was the day, and through the trembling air
Sweet-breathing Zephyrus did softly play—
A gentle spirit, that lightly did delay
Hot Titan's beams, which then did glister fair.
Prothalamion (1596)