Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

The White Island

IN this world, the Isle of Dreams,

While we sit by sorrow’s streams,

Tears and terrors are our themes,

Reciting:

But when once from hence we fly,

More and more approaching nigh

Unto young eternity,

Uniting

In that whiter Island, where

Things are evermore sincere;

Candour here, and lustre there,

Delighting:—

There no monstrous fancies shall

Out of hell an horror call,

To create, or cause at all

Affrighting.

There, in calm and cooling sleep,

We our eyes shall never steep,

But eternal watch shall keep,

Attending

Pleasures such as shall pursue

Me immortalized, and you;

And fresh joys, as never too

Have ending.