Edmund Spenser Quotes

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washèd it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

So long in secret cabin there he held
Her captive to his sensual desire

For deeds do die, however nobly done,
And thoughts of men do as themselves decay;
But wise words, taught in numbers for to run,
Recorded by the Muses, live for aye;
Nor may with storming showers be washed away;
Nor bitter-breathing winds, with harmful blast,
Nor age, nor envy, shall them ever waste.

So every spirit, as it is most pure,
And hath in it the more of heavenly light,
So it the fairer bodie doth procure
To habit in, and it more fairely dight
With cheerful grace and amiable sight:
For of the soule the bodie forme doth take; For the soule is forme, and doth the bodie make.

Hark, how the cheerful birds do chaunt their lays, and carol of love's praise.

Oftimes it haps, that sorrowes of the mynd
Find remedie vnsought, which seeking cannot fynd.

Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled, On Fames eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled.

I learned have, not to despise, What ever thing seemes small in common eyes.

Entire affection hateth nicer hands.

GOE, little booke: thy selfe present,
As child whose parent is unkent,
To him that is the president
Of noblesse and of chevalree:

A bold bad man, that dar'd to call by name Great Gorgon, Prince of darknesse and dead night.

For louers heauen must passe by sorrowes hell.

O Who can tell
The hidden power of herbes, and might of Magick spell?

Leaves, lines, and rhymes, seek her to please alone,
Whom if ye please, I care for other none.

What more felicitie can fall to creature Than to enjoy delight with libertie, And to be lord of all the workes of Nature, To raine in th' aire from earth to highest skie, To feed on flowres and weeds of glorious feature.