This anthology celebrates the wit and imaginative creativity of the Elizabethan poets with a generous selection of their graceful and sophisticated verse. Highlights include sonnets from Shakespeare, Sidney, and Spenser; popular poems by Donne ("Go, and catch a falling star"), Jonson ("Drink to me only with thine eyes"), Marlowe ("The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"); more.

Table of Contents for Elizabethan Poetry: An Anthology

Anonymous (1595-1608)
"Now is the month of maying"
A Sonnet in the Grace of Wit, of Tongue, of Face
Love's a Bee, and Bees Have Stings
Posies
"Except I love, I cannot have delight"
"April is in my mistress' face"
"My Love in her attire doth shew her wit"
"Fie on this feigning!"
"Come, sirrah Jack, ho!"
"In love with you, I all things else do hate"
"Crabbed age and youth"
"If fathers knew but how to leave"
"O sleep, fond Fancy, sleep, my head thou tirest"
"If I could shut the gate against my thoughts"
"In midst of woods or pleasant grove"
Life and Death
Anne Askew (1521-1546)
The Ballad Which Anne Askew Made and Sang When She Was in Newgate
Francis Bacon (1521-1546)
The Life of Man
Barnabe Barnes (c. 1569-1609)
"A blast of wind, a momentary breath"
Richard Barnfield (1574-1627)
The Unknown Shepherd's Complaint
Another of the Same Shepherd's
Thomas Bastard (1566-1618)
"Methinks 'tis pretty sport to hear a child"
Nicholas Breton (c. 1545-c. 1626)
"I would thou wert not fair, or I were wise"
"Say that I should say I love ye"
An Odd Conceit
A Farewell to Love
"Tell me, tell me pretty muse"
"In the merry month of May"
A Sweet Lullaby
Thomas Campion (1567-1620)
"When to her lute Corinna sings"
"My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love"
"I care not for those ladies that must be wooed and prayed"
Cherry-Ripe
"Thou art not fair, for all thy red and white"
Vobiscum est Iope
"So quick, so hot, so mad is thy fond suit"
"The man of life upright"
"Though you are young and I am old"
William Cecil, Lord Burleigh (1520-1598)
To Mistress Anne Cecil, upon making her a New Year's gift
George Chapman (1559-1634)
To the Reader of Homer's Iliad
Robert Chester (c. 1566-c. 1640)
The Phoenix, Her Song
Henry Constable (1562-1613)
Diaphenia
Diana
"My lady's presence makes the roses red"
"Ready to seek out death in my disgrace"
"Ay me, poor wretch, my prayer is turned to sin"
"I do not now complain of my disgrace"
"To live in hell, and heaven to behold"
Anne Dacres, Countess of Arundel (c. 1558-1630)
"In sad and ashy weeds I sigh"
Samuel Daniel (1562-1619)
To Delia
"Unto the boundless ocean of they beauty"
"Fair is my love, and cruel as she's fair"
"If this be love, to draw a weary br
"Oft do I marvel, whether Delia's eyes"
"Care-charmer sleep, son of the sable night"
"Let others sing of knights and paladins"
"Unhappy pen, and ill-accepted lines"
"Now each creature joys the other"
"Love is a sickness full of woes"
To His Reader
John Davies (1569-1626)
The Author's Dedication: To Queen Elizabeth
Hymn VI: To the Nightingale
Thomas Dekker (c. 1570-1632)
Lullaby
O Sweet Content
"Virtue smiles: cry holiday"
Thomas Deloney (c. 1543-c. 1607)
"Farewell, false Love, the oracle of lies"
Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex (1566-1601)
"Change thy mind since she doth change"
Essex's Last Voyage to the Haven of Happiness
John Donne (1572-1631)
The Anniversary
The Apparition
The Canonization
The Good Morrow
The Relic
Song ("Go, and catch a falling star")
Song ("Sweetest love, I do not go")
The Sun Rising
A Valediction: of My Name, in the Window
To His Mistress Going to Bed
Satire I ("Away thou fondling motley humorist")
Michael Drayton (1563-1631)
Sonnets to Idea
I. ("Read here (sweet maid) the story of my woe")
VI. ("How many paltry, foolish, painted things")
XX. ("An evil spirit, your beauty, haunts me still")
LXI. ("Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part")
XLI. ("Dear, why should you command me to my rest")
Edward Dyer (c. 1540-1607)
"My mind to me a kingdom is"
"I joy not in no earthly bliss"
I Would and Would Not
Richard Edwards (c. 1523-1566)
Amantium Irae Amoris Redintegratio
Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
Importune me no more
A Ditty
Charles Fitzgeoffrey (c. 1575-1638)
"Look how the industrious bee in fragrant May"
Giles Fitzgeoffrey (c. 1575-1638)
Licia, the Wise, Kind, Virtuous, and Fair
I. "Bright matchless star, the honor of the sky"
VI. "My love amazed did blush herself to see"
XLVII. "Like Memnon's Rock, touched with the rising sun"
John Fletcher (1579-1625)
Invocation to Sleep
George Gascoigne (c. 1525-1577)
"And if I did, what then"
The Lullaby of a Lover
The Looks of a Lover Enamoured
Dan Bartholmew, His Second Triumph
A Challenge to Beauty
Gascoigne's Arraignment at Beauty's Bar
Humfrey Gifford (date unknown)
For Soldiers
Barnabe Googe (1540-1594)
To Alexander Neville
Out of Sight, Out of
A Posy
Of Money
Robert Greene (c. 1560-1592)
In Love's Dispraise
Weep Not, My Wanton
The Shepherd's Wife's Song
Time
Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke (1544-1628)
"Farewell, sweet boy, complain not of my truth"
Cælica III ("More than most fair, full of that heavenly fire")
Cælica IV ("You little stars that live in skies")
Cælica VII ("The world, that all things contains, is ever moving")
Epitaph on Sir Philip Sidney
Bartholomew Griffin (dates unknown)
Sonnets to Fidessa
IV. "Did you sometimes three German brethren see"
XV. "Care-charmer sleep! Sweet ease in restless misery!"
XLII. "When never-speaking silence proves a wonder"
LXII. "Most true that I must fair Fidessa love"
John Harrington (1561-1612)
The Author to His Wife
The Author to His Wife, of a Woman's Eloquence
To His Wife for Striking Her Dog
Comparison of the Sonnet and the Epigram
Of the Wars in Ireland
Edward Herbert, Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583-1648)
To His Watch When He Could Not Sleep
Upon Combing Her Hair
Kissing
Thomas Heywood (c. 1573-1641)
Good Morrow
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547)
Vow to Love Faithfully Howsoever He Be Rewarded
The Lover Comforteth Himself with the Worthiness of His Love
A Complaint by Night of the Lover Not Beloved
Ben Jonson (c. 1573-1637)
To My Book
To My Bookseller
On My First Daughter
On My First Son
To Fool, or Knave
To John Donne
On Play-Wright
Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H.
Song: That Women Are but Men's Shadows
Song: To Celia ("Drink to me only with thine eyes")
A Lover's Inventory
To the Memory of My Beloved Master, Mr. William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us
Thomas Lodge (c. 1558-1625)
Rosalynde's Description
Rosalynde's Madrigal
Montanus' Sonnet
Praise of Rosalynde
The Lover's Theme
"My bonny lass! Thine eye"
"For pity, pretty eyes, surcease"
John Lyly (c. 1554-1606)
Song ("Herbs, words, and stones")
Sapho's Song
Vulcan's Song, in Making of the Arrows
Cards and Kisses
This Song of the Fisherman
Christopher Marlow (1564-1593)
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Ovid's Elegia I, Book I
Ovid's Elegia V, Book I
Ovid's Elegia IV, Book II
John Marston (c. 1575-1634)
In Lectores prorsus ind
Thomas Middleton (1580-1627)
A Moral: Lucifer Ascending, as Prologue to His Own Play
Anthony Munday (1553-1633)
The Song Which Mistress Ursula Sung to Her Lute, to Zelauto
Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)
"Spring, the sweet spring, is the year's pleasant king"
"Autumn hath all the summer's fruitful treasure"
"Adieu, farewell earth's bliss"
George Peele (1566-1596)
"What thing is love for (well I wot) love is a thing"
Song of Bethsabe Bathing
"His golden locks Time hath to silver turned"
A Farewell to the Famous and Fortunate Generals of Our English Forces, Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake, Knights
Walter Raleigh (c. 1552-1618)
To His Son
Farewell to the Court
Epitaph
Her Reply, or Answer to Marlowe
"What is our life? The play of passion"
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Song ("When icicles hang by the wall")
Song ("Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more")
Song ("When that I was and a little tiny boy")
Song ("Blow, blow, thou winter-wind")
Song ("Under the green-wood tree")
Song ("Take, O take those lips away")
Song ("Fear no more the heat o' th' sun")
Song ("Full fathom five thy father lies")
Sonnet 3: "Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest"
Sonnet 15: "When I consider every thing that grows"
Sonnet 17: "Who will believe my verse in time to come"
Sonnet 18: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
Sonnet 27: "Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed"
Sonnet 29: "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes"
Sonnet 30: "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought"
Sonnet 55: "Not marble, nor the gilded monuments"
Sonnet 64: "When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd"
Sonnet 66: "Tir'd with all these, for restful death I cry"
Sonnet 73: "That time of year thou may'st in me behold"
Sonnet 91: "Some glory in their birth, some in their skill"
Sonnet 116: "Let me not to the marriage of true minds"
Sonnet 130: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"
Sonnet 138: "When my love swears that she is made of truth"
Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621)
Psalm 63, ("God, the God where all my forces lie")
Psalm 139 ("O Lord, in me there lieth nought")
"If ever hapless woman had a cause"
"Alas, with what tormenting fire"
Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
The Bargain
"In vain, mine eyes, you labor to amend"
"My mistress lours, and saith I do not love"
"Ring out your bells, let mourning shewes be spread"
Astrophel and Stella
Sonnet 1 ("Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show")
Sonnet 7 ("When Nature made her chief work, Stella's e
Sonnet 34 ("Come, let me write, and to what end? To ease")
Sonnet 43 ("Fair eyes, sweet lips, dear heart, that foolish I")
Sonnet 49 ("I on my horse, and Love on me, doth try")
Sonnet 54 ("Because I breathe not love to ev'ry one")
Sonnet 59 ("Dear! Why make you more of a dog than me?")
Sonnet 67 ("Hope! Art thou true, or dost thou flatter me?")
Sonnet 70 ("My Muse may well grudge at my heav'nly joy")
Sonnet 80 ("Sweet swelling lip, well may'st thou swell in pride")
William Smith (dates unknown)
Sonnet to Chloris XVIII
Robert Southwell (1561-1595)
The Image of Death
Times Go By Turns
Loss in Delay
The Burning Babe
Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599)
Iambicum Trimetrum
"Sweet is the rose, but grows upon a brere"
"What guile is this, that those her golden tresses"
"Fresh Spring, the herald of love's mighty king"
"One day I wrote her name upon the strand"
"Lacking my love, I go from place to place"
Joshua Sylvester (1563-1618)
"Were I as base as is the lowly plain"
Chidiock Tichborne (c. 1558-1586)
"My prime of youth is but a frost of cares"
Robert Tofte (d. 1620)
Love's Labour Lost
George Turberville (1544-c. 1597)
The Lover to His Lady
The Lover Whose Mistress Feared a Mouse, Declareth That He Would Become a Cat, If He Might Have His Desire
To His Love, That Controlled His Dog for Fawning on Her
Thomas Vaux (1510-1556)
The Aged Lover Renounceth Love
No Pleasure without Some Pain
In His Extreme Sickness
Bethinking Himself of His End, Writeth Thus
Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford (1550-1604)
"If women could be fair and never fond"
"Were I as a king I might command content"
A. W. (dates unknown)
Dispraise of Love, and Lover's Follies
Hopeless Desire Soon Withers and Dies
The Lowest Trees Have Tops
Her Outward Gesture Deceiving His Inward Hope
Thomas Watson (c. 1557-1592)
A Dialogue between a Lover, Death, and Love
Isabella Whitney (c. 1540-post-1580)
To Her Unconstant Lover
The Admonition by the Author to All Young Gentlewomen, and to All Other Maids, Being In Love
Henry Wotton (1568-1639)
Elizabeth of Bohemia
Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)
The Lover Compareth His State to a Ship in Perilous Storm Tossed on the Sea
The Appeal: An earnest Suit to His Unkind Mistress, Not to Forsake Him
The Lover Showeth How He Is Forsaken of Such as He Sometime Enjoyed
The Lover Complaineth the Unkindness of His Love
How Unpossible It Is to Find Quiet in Love
He Complaineth to His Heart That, Having Once Recovered His Freedom, He Had Again Become Thrall to

Alphabetical List of Authors, Titles, and First Lines

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