Pleasures Pernicious.

Where pleasures rule a kingdom, never there
Is sober virtue seen to move her sphere.

Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick was a 17th-century English lyric poet and cleric. He is known for his book of poems, "Hesperides," which includes the carpe diem poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time." His works are noted for their clarity, simplicity, and musical quality. Herrick was also a vicar of Dean Prior in Devon, despite being ejected during the English Civil War and later reinstated.

Robert Herrick

Upon Skurf.

Robert Herrick, Simple Poetry

To His Faithful Friend, M. John Crofts, Cup-Bearer To The King.

Robert Herrick, Simple Poetry

Temptations.

Robert Herrick, Simple Poetry

The Eyes Before The Ears.

Robert Herrick, Simple Poetry

English

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Pain And Pleasure.

God suffers not His saints and servants dear
To have continual pain or pleasure here;
But look how night succeeds the day, so He
Gives them by turns their grief and jollity.

Robert Herrick

Evil.

Evil no nature hath; the loss of good
Is that which gives to sin a livelihood.

Robert Herrick

Man And His Pleasures.

'Tis not with glad fruition crown'd,
We always feel our greatest joy;
For pleasure often dwells around
The heart that hopes, and knows no cloy.

We wait, we watch, we think, we plan
To catch the pleasure ere it flies,
But when 'tis caught, for which we ran,
It often droops, perchance, it dies.

In truth the non-possession oft'
Creates the chief, the only charm,
Of that, which, once obtain'd, is scoff'd,
And oft' receiv'd with vex'd alarm.

The mind of man is strange and deep,
Deceiving others and himself;
Its wiles would make an angel weep,
In strife for praise, for power and pelf.

Strange mixture of the good and ill,
He strives continually to bend
Those qualities, with wondrous skill,
To meet in one, which never blend.

Thomas Frederick Young

To Perenna

When I thy parts run o'er, I can't espy
In any one, the least indecency;
But every line and limb diffused thence
A fair and unfamiliar excellence;
So that the more I look, the more I prove
There's still more cause why I the more should love.

Robert Herrick

Best To Be Merry.

Fools are they who never know
How the times away do go;
But for us, who wisely see
Where the bounds of black death be,
Let's live merrily, and thus
Gratify the Genius.

Robert Herrick

Pain Ends In Pleasure.

Afflictions bring us joy in times to come,
When sins, by stripes, to us grow wearisome.

Robert Herrick