Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden
Robert Herrick (15911674)The White Island
I
While we sit by sorrow’s streams,
Tears and terrors are our themes,
Reciting:
More and more approaching nigh
Unto young eternity,
Uniting
Things are evermore sincere;
Candour here, and lustre there,
Delighting:—
Out of hell an horror call,
To create, or cause at all
Affrighting.
We our eyes shall never steep,
But eternal watch shall keep,
Attending
Me immortalized, and you;
And fresh joys, as never too
Have ending.