Compard with her, all things so worthless prove, Yet when I die, my last breath shall Like covetous men, who ne'er descry Their dear-hid treasures till they die. She like a deity is grown, Ah, fairest maid ! bow will it cheer That must create, or else must be alone. My ghost, to get from thee a tear ! If there be man who thinks himself so high, But take heed; for if me thou pitiest then, As to pretend equality, Twenty to one but I shall live again. He deserves her less than I; For he would cheat for his relief; And one would give, with lesser grief, THE GIVEN HEART. T' an undeserving beggar than a thief. I wonder what those lovers mean, who say They'ave given their hearts away: Some good kind lover, tell me how: For mine is but a torment to me now. For what do they complain? What courtesy can Love do more, Keep still thy distance; for at once to me Than to join hearts that parted were before? Goddess and woman too thou canst not be: Woe to her stubborn heart, if once mine come Thou 'rt queen of all that sees thee, and as such Into the self-same room; Must neither tyrannize nor yield too much; 'Twill tear and blow up all within, Such freedoms give as may admit command, Like a granado shot into a magazine. Then shall Love keep the ashes and torn parts My large ambition ; but 'tis dangerous still, Of both our broken hearts; Lest I like the Pellæan prince should be, Shall out of both one new one make, And weep for other worlds, having conquer'd thee: From her's th'allay, from mine the metal, tako. When Love has taken all thou hast away, For of her heart he from the flames will find His strength by too much riches will decay, But little left behind : Mine only will remain entire ; THE PROPHET. Teach me to love! go teach thyself more wit; Beauty at first moves wonder and delight; I chief professor am of it. 'Tis Nature's juggling trick to cheat the sight. 'Teach craft to Scots, and thrift to Jews, Wadmire it whilst unknown; but after, more Teach boldness to the stews; Admire ourselves for liking it before. In tyrants' courts teach supple flattery; Love, like a greedy hawk, if we give way, Teach Jesuits, that have travellid far, to lie; Does over-gorge himself with his own prey; Teach fire to burn, and winds to blow, Of very hopes a surfeit he'll sustain, Teach restless fountains how to flow, Teach the dull Earth fixt to abide, Teach women-kind inconstancy and pride: But, pr’ythee, teach not me to love. May learn to love from me; He who does boast that he has been The moderate flames which in them dwell; In every heart since Adam's sin; And either find some med'cine there, I'll lay my life, nay mistress, on't, that's more, Or cure themselves ev'n by despair; I'll teach him things he never knew before; My love's so great, that it might proye I'll teach him a receipt, to make Dangerous to tell her that I love. Words that weep, and tears that speak; Bo tender is my wound, it must not bear I'll teach him sighs, like those in death, Any salute, though of the kindest air, At which the souls go out too with the breath : Still the soul stays, yet still does from me run, I would not have her know the pain, The torments, for her I sustain; As light and heat does with the Sun. Lest too much gooriness make her throw 'Tis I who Love's Columbus am; 'tis I Her love upon a fate too low. Who must new worlds in it descry; Forbid it, Heaven! my life should be Rich worlds, that yield a treasure more Weigh'd with her least conveniency: Than all that has been known before. No, let me perish rather with my grief, And yet like his, I fear, my fate must be', Than, to her disadvantage, find relief! To find them out for others, not for me THE RESOLUTION. The Devil take those foolish men Who gave you first such powers; We stood on even grounds till then; If any odds, creation made it ours. For shame, let these weak chains be broke; Let 's our slight boncis, like Samson, tear; And nibly cast away that yoke, Which we nor our forefathers e'er could bear. French laws forbid the female reign; Yet Love does them to slavery draw: Alas! if we'll our rights maintain, 'Tis all mankind must make a Salique law. Lust, the scorching dog-star, here Rages with immoderate heat; In others makes the cold too great: And where these are temperate known, The soil 's all barren sand or rocky stone. When once or twice you chanc'd to view A rich, well-govern'd heart, Like China, it admitted you But to the frontier-part. From Paradise shut for evermore, What good is 't that an angel kept the door? Well fare the pride, and the disdain, And vanities, with beauty join'd; I ne'er had seen this heart again, If any fair-one had been kind : My dove, but once let loose, I doubt Would ne'er return, had not the lood been out. CALLED INCONSTANT. To woman-kind; But, when you call us so, Did they not from him move? Or can you fault with pilots find For.changing course, yet never blame the wind ? Since, drunk with vanity, you fell, The things turn'd round to you that stedfast dwell; And you yourself, who from us take your flight, Wonder to find us out of sight. So the same errour seizes you, THE HEART FLED AGAIN. False, foulish Heart! didst thou nut say That thou would'st never lave me more? Behold! again 'tis fled away, Fled as far froin me as before. I strove to bring it back again; When neither grief nor love prevail, Th'ingrateful Trojan, hoist his sail : Aloud she call'd to him to stay ; On the wide shore forsaken stood : Afar false Theseus cut the flood. But Bacchus came to her relief; But travel thus eternally! And to be scorch'd in every eye! Wandering about like wretched Cain, Thrust-out, ill-us’d, by all, but by none slain ! Well, since thou wilt not here remain, I'll e'en to live without thce try; My head shall take the greater pain, And all thy duties shall supply: I can more easily live, I know, THE WELCOME, Go, let the fatted calf be kill'd; My prodigal 's come home at last, With noble resolutions fill'd, And fill'd with sorrow for the past : No more will burn with love or wine; But quite has left his women and his swine. Welcome, ah! welcome, my poor Heart ! Welcome! I little thought, I'll swear ('Tis now so long since we did part) Ever again to see thee here: Dear wanderer! since from me you iled, How often have I heard that thou wert dead ! Hast thou not found each woman's breast (The lands where thou hast travelled) Either by savages possest, Or wild, and uninhabited ? What joy could'st take, or what repose, In countries so unciviliz'd as those ? WOMEN'S SUPERSTITION, Nor their loose parts to method bring: But they 're strange Hebrew things to me. Yet they continue obstinate: Before their mothers' gods they fondly fall, THE RICH RIVAL. , They say you're angry, and rant mightily, Because I love the same as you : Alas! you're very rich, 'tis true; But, pr’ythee, fool! what's that to love and me? You ’ave land and money, let that serve; But then, like men both covetous and devout, And know you'ave niore by that than you deserve. Their costly superstition loth t omitAnd yet more loth to issue monies out, When next I see my fair-one, she shall know At their own charge to furnish it How worthless thou art of her bed; To these expensive deities And, wretch! I'll strike thee dumb and dead, The hearts of men they sacrifice. With noble verse not understood by you; Whilst thy sole rhetoric shall be " Jointure” and “jewels,” and “ our friends agree.” THE SOUL. Pox o’ your friends, that doat and domineer; Lovers are better friends than they ; Let's those in other things obey; Sone dull philosopher--when he hears me say The fates, and stars, and gods, inust govern My soul is from me fled away, here. Nor has of late inform’d my body here, Vain names of blood ! in love let none But in another's breast does lie, Advise with any blood, but with their own. 'Tis that which bids me this bright maid adore ; No other thought has had access ! Will cry, “ Absurd !” and ask me how I live; Did she now beg, I'd love no less, And syllogisms against it give. And, were she an empress, I should love no more ; A curse on all your vain philosophies, Were she as just and true to me, Which on weak Nature's law depend, Ah, simple soul ! what would become of thee? And know not how to comprehend Love and religion, those great mysteries ! Her body is my soul; laugh not at this, For by my life I swear it is. AGAINST HOPE. 'Tis that preserves my being and my breath; From that proceeds all that I do, Hope ! whose weak being ruin'd is, Nay all my thoughts and speeches too ; Alike, if it succeed, and if it miss; Whom good or ill does equally confound, Vain shadow! which does vanish quite, Both at full noon and perfect night! The stars have not a possibility Of blessing thee; Tir'd with the rough denials of my prayer, If things then from their end we happy call, From that hard she whom I obey; 'Tis Hope is the most hopeless tning of all, I come, and find a nymph much gentler here, Hope ! thou bold taster of delight, Tnat gives consent to all I say. Who, whilst thou should'st bui taste, devour'st Ah, gentle nymph! who lik’st so well it quite ! In hollow, solitary caves to dwell; Thou bring'st us an estate, yet leav'st us poor, Her heart being such, into it go, By clogging it with legacies before ! And do but once from thence answer me so ! The joys which we entire should wed, Complaisant nymph! who dost thus kindly Good fortunes without gain imported be, Come deflower'd virgins to our bed; share In griefs whose cause thou dost not know; Such mighty custon's paid to thee. Hadst thou but ryes, as well as tongue and ear, For joy, like wine, kept close does better taste; How much compassion would'st thou show ! If it take air before, its spirits waste. Thy fame, whilst living, or a flower, Hope ! Fortune's cheating lottery ! Was of less beauty, and less ravishing power. Where for one prize an hundred blanks there be; Alas ! I might as easily Fond archer, Hope! who tak'st thy aim so far, Paint thee to her, as describe her to thee. That still or short or wide thine arrows are! By repercussion beams engender fire ; Thin, empty cloud, which th' eve deceives Shapes by reflection shapes begct; With shapes that our own fancy gires ! The voice itself, when stopt, does back retire, A cloud, which gilt and painted now appears, And a new voice is made by it. But must drop presently in tears! Thus things by opposition When thy false beains o'er Reason's light prevail, The gainers grow; my barren love alone By ignes fatui for north-stars we sail. Does from her stony breast rebound, Brother of Fear, more gayly clad ! Pralucing neither image, fire, nor sound. The merrier fool o'th' two, yet quite as mad : VOL. VII. Sire of Repentance! child of fond Desire ! What ill returns dost thou allow ! There was a time when thou wast cold and chill, anon !" Nor hadst the power of doing ill; By thee the one does changing Nature, through Into my bosom did I take Her endless labyrinths, pursue ; This frozen and benumbed snake, And th’ other chases woman, whilst she goes Not fearing from it any harm; But now it stings that breast which made it warm. And the whole field 'twill overgrow; Straight will it choak up and devour Each wholesome herb and beauteous flower! Nay, unless something soon I do, Thou manna, which from Heaven we eat, Declare, protest, and threat, in vain; Since, by my own 'mforc'd consent, And is so settled in the throne, Hope ! thou first-fruits of happiness! THE FRAILTY. (All this as well as you I know) Who out of Fortune's reach dost stand, Which I so hotly now pursue, (I know all this as well as you) Whilst thee, her earnest-money, we retain, But, whilst this cursed flesh I bear, And all the weakness and the baseness there, Alas! alas ! it will be always so. In vain, exceedingly in vain, Yet to wbat purpose do I bite With teeth which ne'er will break it quite ! For, if the chiefest Christian head Was by this sturdy tyrant buffeted, What wonder is it if weak I be slain? Thine's the more hard and noble bliss : Best apprehender of our joys! wbich hast COLDNESS. As water fluid is, till it do grow Solid and fixt by cold; So in warm seasons Lore does loosely, flow; Frost only can it hold: A woman's rigour and disrlain Does his swift course restrain. Yet, when kind beams appear, And loses itself there. Kisses the ice away. You may in vulgar loves find always this : But my substantial love No weathers can it move: Though heat dissolve the ice again, The crystal solid does remain, ENJOYMENT. Then like some wealihy island thou shalt lio, And like the sea about it, I; Thou, like fair Albion to the sailor's sight, Here black, there brown, here tawny, and there Spreading her beauteous bosom all in white; white; Like the kind Ocean I will be, Thou flatterer! which comply'st with every sight! With loving arms for ever clasping thee. Thou Babel, which confound'st the eye But I'll embrace thee gentlier far than so; With unintelligible variety ! As their fresh banks soft rivers do: Who hast no certain what, nor where; Nor shall the proudest planet boast a power But vary'st still, and dost thyself declare Of making my full love to ebb one hour; Inconstant, as thy she-professors are. It never dry or low can prove, Beauty ! Love's scene and masquerade, Whilst thy unwasted fountain feeds my love. So gay by well-plac'd lights and distance made; Such heat and vigour shall our kisses bear, False coin, with which th’impostor cheats us still ; As if like doves wengender'd there: The stamp and colour good, but metal ill! No bound nor rule my pleasures shall endure, Which light or base we find, when we In love there's none too much an epicure: Weigh by enjoyment, and examine thee! Nought shall my hands or lips control; For, though thy being be but show, I'll kiss thee through, I'll kiss thy very soul. 'Tis chiefly night which men to thee allow : And chuse t'enjoy thee, when thou least art Thou. Yet nothing but the Night our'sports shall know; Night, that's both blind and silent too! Beauty! thou active, passive ill ! Alpheus found not a more secret trace, Which dy'st thyself as fast as thou dost kill! His lov'd Sicanian fountain to embrace, Thou tulip, who thy stock in paint dost waste, Creeping so far beneath the sea, Nether for physic good, nor smell, nor taste. Than I will do t'enjoy and feast on thee. Beauty! whose flames but meteors are, Short-liv'd and low, though thou would'st seem Men, out of wisdom; women, out of pride, a star; The pleasant thefts of love do hide: Who dar'st not thine own home descry, When thou, alas ! dost in the fancy lie. Beauty! whose conquests still are made When Sickness storms, or Time besieges thee! SLEEP. Thou unwholesome thaw to frozen age ! Ix vain, thou drowsy god! I thee invoke; Thou strong wine, which youth's fever dost enFor thou, who dost from fumes arise rage! Thou, who man's soul dost overshade Thou tyrant, which leav'st no man free! With a thick cloud by vapours made Thou subtle thief, from whom nought safe can be ! Canst have no power to shut his eyes, Thou murderer, which hast kill'd, and devil, which would'st damn me! THE PARTING. As men in Greenland left beheld the Sun From their horizon run, But all my too much moisture owe And thought upon the sad half-year . To overflowings of the heart below. Of cold and darkness they must suffer there i Thou, who dost men (as nights to colours do) So on my parting mistress did I look; Bring all to an equality! With such swoln eyes my farewell took : Come, thou just godl and equal me Ah, my fair star! said I; Awhile to my disdainful She: Ah, those blest lands to which bright Thou dost In that condition let me lie, fly! Till Love does me the favour shew: In vain the men of learning comfort me, Lore equals all a better way than you. And say I'm in a warm degree; Then never more shalt thou b’invok'd by me; Say what they please, I say and swear Watchful as spirits and gods I'll prove: 'Tis beyond eighty at least, if you 're not here. It is, it is; I tremble with the frost, And know that I the day have lost; And those wild things wbich men thcy call, Never will an agreement be; Return, return, gay planet of mine East, Of all that shines thon much the best! And, as thou now descend'st to sea, More fair and fresh rise up from thence to mp3 Beauty! thon wild fantastic ape, Thou, who in many a propriety, Who dost in every country change thy shape ! So truly art the Sun to me, Thou scorn’st tlo unhappy, and the happy, thee! I find to be but bears or foxes all. |