Winter Nights Enlarge

Now winter nights enlarge     The number of their hours,     And clouds their storms discharge     Upon the airy towers.     Let now the chimneys blaze,     And cups o'erflow with wine;     Let well-tuned words amaze     With harmony divine.     Now yellow waxen lights     Shall wait on honey love,     While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights     Sleep's leaden spells remove.     This time doth well dispense     With lovers' long discourse;     Much speech hath some defence,     Though beauty no remorse.     All do not all things well;     Some measures comely tread,     Some knotted riddles tell,     Some poems smoothly read.     The summer hath his joys     And winter his delights;     Though love and all his pleasures are but toys,     They shorten tedious nights.