Poems by Henry Howard

All Poems Original Poems Translations

1 2 3 › »

The Soote Season

The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,

With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale;

The nightingale with feathers new she sings,

The turtle to her make hath told her tale.

Summer is come, for every spray now springs,

The hart hath hung his old head on the pale,

The buck in brake his winter coat he flings,

The fishes float with new repaired scale,

158

by Henry Howard

Alas! So All Things Now Do Hold Their Peace

Alas! so all things now do hold their peace,

Heaven and earth disturbed in nothing.

The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease,

The night{:e}s chare the stars about doth bring.

Calm is the sea, the waves work less and less:

So am not I, whom love, alas, doth wring,

Bringing before my face the great increase

Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing

164

by Henry Howard

Love That Doth Reign And Live

Love that doth reign and live within my thought

And built his seat within my captive breast,

Clad in the arms wherein with me he fought,

Oft in my face he doth his banner rest.

But she that taught me love and suffer pain,

My doubtful hope and eke my hot desire

With shamefast look to shadow and refrain,

Her smiling grace converteth straight to ire.

168

by Henry Howard

Brittle Beauty

Brittle beauty that nature made so frail,

Whereof the gift is small, and short the season,

Flowering today, tomorrow apt to fail,

Tickle

treasure, abhorred of reason, [fragile]Dangerous to deal with, vain, of none avail,Costly in keeping, passed not worth two peason

, [peas]

Slipper

in sliding as is an eel's tail, [slippery]Jewel of jeopardy that peril doth assail,False and untrue, enticed oft to treason,Enemy to youth: that most may I bewail.Ah, bitter sweet: infecting as the poison, Thou farest as fruit that with the frost is taken: Today ready ripe, tomorrow all to-shaken

120

Henry Howard

Set Me Whereas The Sun Doth Parch The Green

Set me whereas the sun doth parch the green

Or where his beams do not dissolve the ice,

In temperate heat where he is felt and seen;

In presence prest of people, mad or wise;

Set me in high or yet in low degree,

In longest night or in the shortest day,

In clearest sky or where clouds thickest be,

In lusty youth or when my hairs are gray.

225

Henry Howard

The Sun Hath Twice

The sun hath twice brought forth the tender green,

And clad the earth in lively lustiness;

Once have the winds the trees despoiled clean,

And now again begins their cruelness,

Since I have hid under my breast the harm

That never shall recover healthfulness.

The winter's hurt recovers with the warm;

The parched green restored is with shade;

143

Henry Howard

A Praise Of His Love

Give place, ye lovers, here before

That spent your boasts and brags in vain;

My lady's beauty passeth more

The best of yours, I dare well sayn,

Than doth the sun the candle-light,

Or brightest day the darkest night.

And thereto hath a troth as just

As had Penelope the fair;

176

Henry Howard

So Cruel Prison

So cruel prison how could betide, alas,

As proud Windsor? Where I in lust and joy

With a king's son my childish years did pass

In greater feast than Priam's sons of Troy;

Where each sweet place returns a taste full sour:

The large green courts, where we were wont to hove,

With eyes cast up unto the maidens' tower,

And easy sighs, such as folk draw in love;

153

Henry Howard

Certain Books Of Virgil's AEneis: Book II

BOOK II

They whisted all, with fixed face attent,

When Prince AEneas from the royal seat

Thus gan to speak: O Queen, it is thy will

I should renew a woe cannot be told,

How that the Greeks did spoil and overthrow

The Phrygian wealth and wailful realm of Troy;

Those ruthful things that I myself beheld,

124

Henry Howard

Of The Death Of Sir Thomas Wyatt The Elder

Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest;

Whose heavenly gifts increased by disdain,

And virtue sank the deeper in his breast;

Such profit he by envy could obtain.

A head where wisdom mysteries did frame,

Whose hammers beat still in that lively brain

As on a stithy where that some work of fame

Was daily wrought, to turn to Britain's gain.

102

Henry Howard

From Tuscan Came My Lady's Worthy Race

From Tuscan came my lady's worthy race;

Fair Florence was sometime her ancient seat.

The western isle whose pleasant shore doth face

Wild Camber's cliffs, did give her lively heat.

Foster'd she was with milk of Irish breast;

Her sire an earl, her dame of princes' blood.

From tender years in Britain she doth rest

With a king's child, where she tastes ghostly food.

183

Henry Howard

A Satire Against The Citizens Of London

London, hast thou accused me

Of breach of laws, the root of strife?

Within whose breast did boil to see,

So fervent hot, thy dissolute life,

That even the hate of sins that grow

Within thy wicked walls so rife,

For to break forth did convert so

That terror could it not repress.

131

Henry Howard