John Dryden Poems

Like some raw sophister that mounts the pulpit,
So trembles a young poet at a full pit.
Unused to crowds, the parson quakes for fear,
...

Stay, stranger, stay, and drop one tear.
She always weeps, who laid him here;
And will do till her race is run;
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You charm'd me not with that fair face
Though it was all divine:
To be another's is the grace,
That makes me wish you mine.
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Men are but children of a larger growth;
Our appetites are apt to change as theirs,
And full as craving too, and full as vain;
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Fair, kind, and true, a treasure each alone,
A wife, a mistress, and a friend, in one;
Rest in this tomb, raised at thy husband's cost,
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Farewell, fair Armida, my joy and my grief!
In vain I have loved you, and hope no relief;
Undone by your virtue, too strict and severe,
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New ministers, when first they get in place,
Must have a care to please; and that's our case:
Some laws for public welfare we design,
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Can life be a blessing,
Or worth the possessing,
Can life be a blessing if love were away?
Ah no! though our love all night keep us waking,
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'Twas on a joyless and a gloomy morn,
Wet was the grass, and hung with pearls the thorn,
When Damon, who designed to pass the day
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1.
Go tell Amynta, gentle swain,
I would not die, nor dare complain.
Thy tuneful voice with numbers join,
...