Connubii Flores, or the Well-wishes At Weddings

Chorus Sacerdotum. From the temple to your home
  May a thousand blessings come!
  And a sweet concurring stream
  Of all joys to join with them.

Chorus Juvenum. Happy Day,
    Make no long stay
      Here
      In thy sphere;
  But give thy place to Night,
      That she,
      As thee,
      May be
  Partaker of this sight.
  And since it was thy care
  To see the younglings wed,
  ’Tis fit that Night the pair
  Should see safe brought to bed.

Chorus Senum. Go to your banquet then, but use delight,
  So as to rise still with an appetite.
  Love is a thing most nice, and must be fed
  To such a height, but never surfeited.
  What is beyond the mean is ever ill:
  ’Tis best to feed Love, but not overfill;
  Go then discreetly to the bed of pleasure,
  And this remember, virtue keeps the measure.

Chorus Virginum. Lucky signs we have descri’d
  To encourage on the bride,
  And to these we have espi’d,
  Not a kissing Cupid flies
  Here about, but has his eyes
  To imply your love is wise.

Chorus Pastorum. Here we present a fleece
    To make a piece
      Of cloth;
  Nor, fair, must you be both
    Your finger to apply
      To housewifery.
      Then, then begin
        To spin:
And, sweetling, mark you, what a web will come
Into your chests, drawn by your painful thumb.

Chorus Matronarum. Set you to your wheel, and wax
  Rich by the ductile wool and flax.
  Yarn is an income, and the housewives’ thread
  The larder fills with meat, the bin with bread.

Chorus Senum. Let wealth come in by comely thrift
  And not by any sordid shift;
      ’Tis haste
      Makes waste:
    Extremes have still their fault:
  The softest fire makes the sweetest malt:

  Who grips too hard the dry and slippery sand

  Holds none at all, or little in his hand.


Chorus Virginum. Goddess of pleasure, youth and peace,
  Give them the blessing of increase:
  And thou, Lucina, that dost hear
  The vows of those that children bear:
  Whenas her April hour draws near,
  Be thou then propitious there.

Chorus Juvenum. Far hence be all speech that may anger move:
  Sweet words must nourish soft and gentle love.

Chorus Omnium. Live in the love of doves, and having told
  The raven’s years, go hence more ripe than old.
Connubii Flores, or the Well-wishes At Weddings

by Robert Herrick, 1648
