[ { "title": "Content, To My Dearest Lucasia", "author": "Katherine Philips", "lines": [ "Content, the false World's best disguise,", "The search and faction of the Wise,", "Is so abstruse and hid in night,", "That, like that Fairy Red-cross Knight,", "Who trech'rous Falshood for clear Truth had got,", "Men think they have it when they have it not.", "", "For Courts Content would gladly own,", "But she ne're dwelt about a Throne:", "And to be flatter'd, rich, and great,", "Are things which do Mens senses cheat.", "But grave Experience long since this did see,", "Ambition and Content would ne're agree.", "", "Some vainer would Content expect", "From what their bright Out-sides reflect:", "But sure Content is more Divine", "Then to be digg'd from Rock or Mine:", "And they that know her beauties will confess,", "She needs no lustre from a glittering dress.", "", "In Mirth some place her, but she scorns", "Th'assistance of such crackling thorns,", "Nor owes her self to such thin sport,", "That is so sharp and yet so short:", "And Painters tell us, they the same strokes place", "To make a laughing and a weeping face.", "", "Others there are that place Content", "In Liberty from Government:", "But who his Passions do deprave,", "Though free from shackles is a slave.", "Content and Bondage differ onely then,", "When we are chain'd by Vices, not by Men.", "", "Some think the Camp Content does know,", "And that she fits o'th' Victor's brow:", "But in his Laurel there is seen", "Often a Cypress-bow between.", "Nor will Content herself in that place give,", "Where Noise and Tumult and Destruction live.", "", "But yet the most Discreet believe,", "The Schools this Jewel do receive,", "And thus far's true without dispute,", "Knowledge is still the sweetest fruit.", "But whil'st men seek for Truth they lose their Peace;", "And who heaps Knowledge, Sorrow doth increase.", "", "But now some sullen Hermite smiles,", "And thinks he all the World beguiles,", "And that his Cell and Dish contain", "What all mankind wish for in vain.", "But yet his Pleasure's follow'd with a Groan,", "For man was never born to be alone.", "", "Content her self best comprehends", "Betwixt two souls, and they two friends,", "Whose either joyes in both are fixed,", "And multiply'd by being mixed:", "Whose minds and interests are still the same;", "Their Griefs, when once imparted, lose their name.", "", "These far remov'd from all bold noise,", "And (what is worse) all hollow joyes,", "Who never had a mean design,", "Whose flame is serious and divine,", "And calm, and even, must contented be,", "For they've both Union and Society.", "", "Then, my Lucasia, we have", "Whatever Love can give or crave;", "With scorn or pity can survey", "The Trifles which the most betray;", "With innocence and perfect friendship fired,", "By Vertue joyn'd, and by our Choice retired.", "", "Whose Mirrours are the crystal Brooks,", "Or else each others Hearts and Looks;", "Who cannot wish for other things", "Then Privacy and Friendship brings:", "Whose thoughts and persons chang'd and mixt are one,", "Enjoy Content, or else the World hath none." ], "linecount": "72" }, { "title": "To my dear Sister, Mrs. C. P. on her Nuptial", "author": "Katherine Philips", "lines": [ "We will not like those men our offerings pay", "Who crown the cup, then think they crown the day.", "We make no garlands, nor an altar build,", "Which help not Joy, but Ostentation yield.", "Where mirth is justly grounded these wild toyes", "Are but a troublesome, and empty noise.", "", "2.", "But these shall be my great Solemnities,", "Orinda's wishes for Cassandra's bliss.", "May her Content be as unmix'd and pure", "As my Affection, and like that endure;", "And that strong Happiness may she still find", "Not owing to her Fortune, but her Mind.", "", "3.", "May her Content and Duty be the same,", "And may she know no Grief but in the name.", "May his and her Pleasure and Love be so", "Involv'd and growing, that we may not know", "Who most Affection or most Peace engrost;", "Whose Love is strongest, or whose Bliss is most.", "", "4.", "May nothing accidental e're appear", "But what shall with new bonds their Souls endear;", "And may they count the hours as they pass,", "By their own Joys, and not by Sun or Glass:", "While every day like this may Sacred prove", "To Friendship, Gratitude, and Strictest Love." ], "linecount": "27" }, { "title": "A Retir'd Friendship", "author": "Katherine Philips", "lines": [ "Come, my Ardelia, to this bowre,", "Where kindly mingling Souls a while,", "Let's innocently spend an houre,", "And at all serious follys smile", "", "Here is no quarrelling for Crowns,", "Nor fear of changes in our fate;", "No trembling at the Great ones frowns", "Nor any slavery of state.", "", "Here's no disguise, nor treachery", "Nor any deep conceal'd design;", "From blood and plots this place is free,", "And calm as are those looks of thine.", "", "Here let us sit and bless our Starres", "Who did such happy quiet give,", "As that remov'd from noise of warres.", "In one another's hearts we live.", "", "We should we entertain a feare?", "Love cares not how the world is turn'd.", "If crouds of dangers should appeare,", "Yet friendship can be unconcern'd.", "", "We weare about us such a charme,", "No horrour can be our offence;", "For misheif's self can doe no harme", "To friendship and to innocence.", "", "Let's mark how soone Apollo's beams", "Command the flocks to quit their meat,", "And not intreat the neighbour -- streams", "To quench their thirst, but coole their heat.", "", "In such a scorching Age as this,", "Whoever would not seek a shade", "Deserve their happiness to misse,", "As having their own peace betray'd.", "", "But we (of one another's mind", "Assur'd,) the boistrous world disdain;", "With quiet souls, and unconfin'd,", "Enjoy what princes wish in vain." ], "linecount": "36" }, { "title": "6th April 1651 L'Amitie: To Mrs. M. Awbrey", "author": "Katherine Philips", "lines": [ "Soule of my soule! my Joy, my crown, my friend!", "A name which all the rest doth comprehend;", "How happy are we now, whose sols are grown,", "By an incomparable mixture, One:", "Whose well acquainted minds are not as neare", "As Love, or vows, or secrets can endeare.", "I have no thought but what's to thee reveal'd,", "Nor thou desire that is from me conceal'd.", "Thy heart locks up my secrets richly set,", "And my breast is thy private cabinet.", "Thou shedst no teare but what but what my moisture lent,", "And if I sigh, it is thy breath is spent.", "United thus, what horrour can appeare", "Worthy our sorrow, anger, or our feare?", "Let the dull world alone to talk and fight", "And with their vast ambitions nature fright;", "Let them despise so innocent a flame,", "While Envy, pride, and faction play their game:", "But we by Love sublim'd so high shall rise,", "To pitty Kings, and Conquerours despise,", "Since we that sacred union have engrost,", "Which they and all the sullen world have lost." ], "linecount": "22" }, { "title": "To One Persuading A Lady To Marriage", "author": "Katherine Philips", "lines": [ "Forbear, bold youth; all 's heaven here,", " And what you do aver", "To others courtship may appear,", " 'Tis sacrilege to her.", "She is a public deity;", " And were 't not very odd", "She should dispose herself to be", " A petty household god?", "", "First make the sun in private shine", " And bid the world adieu,", "That so he may his beams confine", " In compliment to you:", "But if of that you do despair,", " Think how you did amiss", "To strive to fix her beams which are", " More bright and large than his." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Epitaph on her Son H. P.", "author": "Katherine Philips", "lines": [ "WHat on Earth deserves our trust ?", "Youth and Beauty both are dust.", "Long we gathering are with pain,", "What one moment calls again.", "Seven years childless, marriage past,", "A Son, a son is born at last :", "So exactly lim'd and fair.", "Full of good Spirits, Meen, and Air,", "As a long life promised,", "Yet, in less than six weeks dead.", "Too promising, too great a mind", "In so small room to be confin'd :", "Therefore, as fit in Heav'n to dwell,", "He quickly broke the Prison shell.", "So the subtle Alchimist,", "Can't with Hermes Seal resist", "The powerful spirit's subtler flight,", "But t'will bid him long good night.", "And so the Sun if it arise", "Half so glorious as his Eyes,", "Like this Infant, takes a shrowd,", "Buried in a morning Cloud." ], "linecount": "22" }, { "title": "Friendships Mystery, To My Dearest Lucasia", "author": "Katherine Philips", "lines": [ "Come, my Lucasia, since we see", "That miracles Men's Faith do move,", "By wonder and by prodigy", "To the dull angry World let's prove", "There's a Religion in our Love.", "", "For Though we were design'd t'agree,", "That Fate no liberty destroys,", "But our Election is as free", "As Angels, who with greedy choice", "Are yet determin'd to their joys.", "", "Our hearts are doubled by the loss,", "Here Mixture is Addition grown;", "We both diffuse, and both ingross:", "And we whose minds are so much one,", "Never, yet ever are alone.", "", "We court our own Captivity", "Than Thrones more great and innocent:", "`Twere banishment to be set free,", "Since we wear fetters whose intent", "Not Bondage is but Ornament", "", "Divided joys are tedious found,", "And griefs united easier grow:", "We are our selves but by rebound,", "And all our Titles shuffled so,", "Both Princes, and both Subjects too.", "", "Our Hearts are mutual Victims laid,", "While they (such power in Friendship lies)", "Are Altars, Priests, and Off'rings made:", "And each Heart which thus kindly dies,", "Grows deathless by the Sacrifice." ], "linecount": "30" }, { "title": "In memory of that excellent person Mrs. Mary Lloyd of Bodidrist in Denbigh-shire", "author": "Katherine Philips", "lines": [ "I CANNOT hold, for though to write were rude,", "Yet to be silent were Ingratitude,", "And Folly too; for if Posterity", "Should never hear of such a one as thee,", "And onely know this Age's brutish fame,", "They would think Vertue nothing but a Name.", "And though far abler Pens must her define,", "Yet her Adoption hath engaged mine:", "And I must own where Merit shines so clear,", "'Tis hard to write, but harder to forbear.", "Sprung from an ancient and an honour'd Stem,", "Who lent her lustre, and she paid it them;", "Who still in great and noble things appeared,", "Whom all their Country lov'd, and yet they feared.", "Match'd to another good and great as they,", "Who did their Country both oblige and sway.", "Behold herself, who had without dispute", "More then both Families could contribute.", "What early Beauty Grief and Age had broke,", "Her lovely Reliques and her Off-spring spoke.", "She was by nature and her Parents care", "A Woman long before most others are.", "But yet that antedated2 season she", "Improv'd to Vertue, not to Liberty.", "For she was still in either state of life", "Meek as a Virgin, Prudent as a Wife", "And she well knew, although so young and fair,", "Justly to mix Obedience Love and Care;", "Whil'st to her Children she did still appear", "So wisely kind, so tenderly severe,", "That they from her Rule and Example brought", "A native Honour, which she stampt and taught.", "Nor can a single Pen enough commend", "So kind a Sister and so clear a Friend.", "A Wisdom from above did her secure,", "Which as 'twas peaceable, was ever pure.", "And if well-order'd Commonwealths must be", "Patterns for every private Family,", "Her House, rul'd by her hand and by her eye,", "Might be a Pattern for a Monarchy.", "Solomon's wisest Woman less could do;", "She built her house, but this preserv'd hers too.", "She was so pious that when she did die,", "She scarce chang'd Place, I'm sure not Company.", "Her Zeal was primitive and practick too;", "She did believe, and pray, and read, and do.", "A firm and equal Soul she had engrost,", "Just ev'n to those that disoblig'd her most.", "She grew to love those wrongs she did receive", "For giving her the power to Forgive.", "Her Alms I may admire, but not relate;", "But her own works shall praise her in the gate.", "Her Life was checquer'd with afflictive years,", "And even her Comfort season'd in her Tears.", "Scarce for a Husband's loss her eyes were dried,", "And that loss by her Children half supplied,", "When Heav'n was pleas'd not these dear Propes' afford,", "But tore most off by sickness or by sword.", "She, who in them could still their Father boast,", "Was a fresh Widow every Son she lost.", "Litigious hands did her of Right deprive,", "That after all 'twas Penance to survive.", "She still these Griefs hath nobly undergone,", "Which few support at all, but better none.", "Such a submissive Greatness who can find?", "A tender Heart with so resolv'd a Mind?", "But she, though sensible, was still the same,", "Of a resigned Soul, untainted Fame,", "Nor were her Vertues coarsly set, for she", "Out-did Example in Civility.", "To bestow blessings, to oblige, relieve,", "Was all for which she could endure to live.", "She had a joy higher in doing good,", "Than they to whom the benefit accru'd.", "Though none of Honour had a quicker sense,", "Never had Woman more of complacence;", "Yet lost it not in empty forms, but still", "Her Nature noble was, her Soul gentile.", "And as in Youth she did attract, (for she", "The Verdure had without the Vanity)", "So she in Age was mild and grave to all,", "Was not morose, but was majestical.", "Thus from all other Women she had skill", "To draw their good, but nothing of their ill.", "And since she knew the mad tumultuous World,", "Saw Crowns revers'd, Temples to ruine hurl'd;", "She in Retirement chose to shine and burn,", "As a bright Lamp shut in some Roman Urn.", "At last, when spent with sickness, grief and age,", "Her Guardian Angel did her death presage:", "(So that by strong impulse she chearfully", "Dispensed blessings, and went home to die;", "That so she might, when to that place removed,", "Marry his Ashes whom she ever loved)", "She dy'd, gain'd a reward, and paid a debt.", "The Sun himself did never brighter set.", "Happy were they that knew her and her end,", "More happy they that did from her descend:", "A double blessing they may hope to have,", "One she convey'd to them, and one she gave.", "All that are hers are therefore sure to be", "Blest by Inheritance and Legacy.", "A Royal Birth had less advantage been.", "'Tis more to die a Saint than live a Queen." ], "linecount": "104" }, { "title": "In Memory of F.P.", "author": "Katherine Philips", "lines": [ "If I could ever write a lasting verse,", "It should be laid, deare Sainte, upon thy herse.", "But Sorrow is no muse, and doth confesse", "That it least can what most it would expresse.", "Yet, that I may some bounds to griefe allow,", "I'le try if I can weepe in numbers now.", "Ah beauteous blossom! too untimely dead!", "Whither, ah whither is thy sweetness fled?", "Where are the charmes that allwayes did arise", "From the prevailing languadge [sic] of thine eyes?", "Where is thy modest aire and lovely meen,", "And all the wonders that in these were seen?", "Alas! in vaine! In vaine on three I rave;", "There is no pitty in the stupid grave . . .", "Never, ah never let glad parents guesse", "At one remove of future happinesse,", "But reckon children 'mong those passing joys,", "Which one hour gives, and the next hour destroyes.", "Alas! we were secure of our content,", "But find too late that it was onely lent,", "To be a mirrour wherein we might see", "How fraile we are, how innocent should be.", "But if to thy blest soule my griefe appeares,", "Forgive and pitty these injurious teares;", "Impute them to affection's sad excesse,", "Which will not yeild to nature's tendernesse,", "Since 'twas through dearest tyes and highest trust", "Continu'd from thy cradle to thy dust;", "And so rewarded and confirm'd by thine,", "(wo is me!) I thought thee too much mine.", "But I'le resigne, and follow thee as fast", "As my unhappy minutes will make hast.", "Till when, the fresh remembrances of thee", "Shall be my emblem of mortalitie.", "For such a loss as thine, bright soule, is not", "Ever to be repaired, or forgot." ], "linecount": "36" } ]