Thou pretty heav'n whose great and lesser spheares <br />With constant wheelings measure hours and yeares <br />Soe faithfully that thou couldst solve the doubt <br />Of erring Time if Nature should be out, <br />Where's thy intelligence? thy Soule? the Key <br />That gives thee Life and Motion? must thou stay <br />Thus cramp'd with rusty Sloth? and shall each wheele <br />Disorganis'd confess it is but steele? <br />Art's Living Creature, is thy thread all spent? <br />Thy Pulse quite dead? hath Time a period sent <br />To his owne Sister? slaine his Eeven Match? <br />That when we looke 'tis doomesday by the Watch. <br />Prithee sweete Watch be marri'd, joyne thy side <br />Unto an active key, and then abide <br />A frequent screwing, till successively <br />More and more Time beget Eternity. <br />Knowe as a Woman never lock'd and key'd <br />Once in twice twelve growes faint and is downe-weighed <br />From Nature's full intent, and cannot live <br />Beyond her natural span, unlesse Man give <br />His vanish'd bone a quick'ning, unless Man <br />Doe adde an Ell unto her now shrunk span, <br />Unless he lengthen out posteritie <br />Her secret orbes will faint and She all die; <br />Soe will thy wheeles decay, and finde their date <br />Unless a Key their houres doe propagate: <br />Then gett a key and live; my life Ile gage <br />Each minute then shall grow into an age; <br />Then lett thy Mistresse looking smile on Thee, <br />And say 'tis time my Watch and I agree.<br /><br />William Strode<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-a-gentlewoman-s-watch-that-wanted-a-key/