Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/299

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GEORGE WITHER

The voice which I did more esteem  Than music in her sweetest key, Those eyes which unto me did seem  More comfortable than the day,   Those now by me, as they have been,   Shall never more be heard or seen; But what I once enjoy'd in them Shall seem hereafter as a dream.
Lord! keep me faithful to the trust  Which my dear spouse reposed in me: To him now dead preserve me just  In all that should performed be!  For though our being man and wife  Extendeth only to this life, Yet neither life nor death should end The being of a faithful friend.

WILLIAM BROWNE, OF TAVISTOCK

1588-1643

248
A Welcome
WELCOME, welcome! do I sing, Far more welcome than the spring; He that parteth from you never Shall enjoy a spring for ever.
He that to the voice is near  Breaking from your iv'ry pale, Need not walk abroad to hear The delightful nightingale. Welcome, welcome, then . . .

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