Compar'd with her, all things so worthless prove, Equal to her, alas! there's none; That must create, or else must be alone. If there be man who thinks himself so high, As to pretend equality, He deserves her less than I; For he would cheat for his relief; And one would give, with lesser grief, Tan undeserving beggar than a thief. Yet when I die, my last breath shall I AGAINST FRUITION. THE GIVEN HEART. 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. No; thou'rt a fool, I'll swear, if e'er thou grant; If so it be one place both hearts contain, When once thy kindness puts my ignorance out; Beauty at first moves wonder and delight; 'Tis Nature's juggling trick to eheat the sight. LOVE UNDISCOVERED. The moderate flames which in them dwell; I would not have her know the pain, Forbid it, Heaven! my life should be For what do they complain? What courtesy can Love do more, "Twill tear and blow up all within, Shall out of both one new one make, Mine only will remain entire ; THE PROPHET. TEACH me to love! go teach thyself more wit; Teach craft to Scots, and thrift to Jews, In tyrants' courts teach supple flattery; He who does boast that he has been Who must new worlds in it descry; Me times to come, I know it, shall Love's last and greatest prophet call; But, ah! what's that, if she refuse To hear the wholesome doctrines of my Muse; If to my share the prophet's fate must comeHereafter fame, here martyrdom? THE RESOLUTION. THE Devil take those foolish men For shame, let these weak chains be broke; Yet Love does them to slavery draw: CALLED INCONSTANT. HA! ha! you think you've kill'd my fame, But, when you call us so, It can at best but for a metaphor go. Can you the shore inconstant call, Or can you fault with pilots find For changing course, yet never blame the wing? 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, As men in motion think the trees move too. THE WELCOME, Go, let the fatted calf be kill'd; And fill'd with sorrow for the past: Ever again to see thee here: Or wild, and uninhabited ? What joy could'st take, or what repose, In countries so unciviliz'd as those? Lust, the scorching dog-star, here And where these are temperate known, When once or twice you chanc'd to view 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, My dove, but once let loose, I doubt THE HEART FLED AGAIN. FALSE, foolish Heart! didst thou not say That thou would'st never leave me more? Behold! again 'tis fled away, Fled as far from me as before. I strove to bring it back again; I cry'd and hollow'd after it in vain. When neither grief nor love prevail, Th' ingrateful Trojan, hoist his sail : On the wide shore forsaken stood: And to be scorch'd in every eye! WOMEN'S SUPERSTITION. I can no sense nor no contexture find, Before their mothers' gods they fondly fall, But then, like men both covetous and devout, At their own charge to furnish it- The hearts of men they sacrifice. THE SOUL. SOME dull philosopher-when he hears me say Nor has of late inform'd my body here, As a form servient and assisting there- A curse on all your vain philosophies, Which on weak Nature's law depend, 'Tis that preserves my being and my breath; In griefs whose cause thou dost not know; Paint thee to her, as describe her to thee, Shapes by reflection shapes beget; The voice itself, when stopt, does back retire, The gainers grow; my barren love alone Pox o' your friends, that doat and domineer; Vain names of blood! in love let none And, were she an empress, I should love no more; Were she as just and true to me, Ah, simple soul! what would become of thee? it quite ! Thou bring'st us an estate, yet leav'st us poor, By clogging it with legacies before! The joys which we entire should wed, Good fortunes without gain imported be, Come deflower'd virgins to our bed; Such mighty custom's paid to thee. For joy, like wine, kept close does better taste; If it take air before, its spirits waste. Hope! Fortune's cheating lottery! Where for one prize an hundred blanks there be; Fond archer, Hope! who tak'st thy aim so far, That still or short or wide thine arrows are! Thin, empty cloud, which th' eye deceives With shapes that our own fancy gives! A cloud, which gilt and painted now appears, But must drop presently in tears! When thy false beams o'er Reason's light prevail, By ignes fatui for north-stars we sail. Brother of Fear, more gayly clad! The merrier fool o' th' two, yet quite as mad: 1 Sire of Repentance! child of fond Desire! That blow'st the chymics', and the lovers', fire, Leading them still insensibly' on By the strange witchcraft of "anon!" By thee the one does changing Nature, through Her endless labyrinths, pursue; And th' other chases woman, whilst she goes More ways and turns than hunted Nature knows. FOR HOPE. HOPE! of all ills that men endure, Thou manna, which from Heaven we eat, Thou strong retreat! thou sure-entail'd estate, Hope! thou first-fruits of happiness! Who out of Fortune's reach dost stand, Whilst thee, her earnest-money, we retain, Whether she her bargain break, or else fulfil; Brother of Faith! 'twixt whom and thee The joys of Heaven and Earth divided be! Though Faith be heir, and have the fixt estate, Thy portion yet in moveables is great. Happiness itself's all one In thee, or in possession ! Thine's the more hard and noble bliss: Than thou canst be, when thou dost miss; Men leave thee by obtaining, and straight flee Some other way again to thee; And that's a pleasant country, without doubt, To which all soon return that travel out. LOVE'S INGRATITUDE. I LITTLE thought, thou fond ingrateful sin! When first I let thee in, And gave thee but a part In my unwary heart, That thou would'st e'er have grown So false or strong to make it all thine own. At mine own breast with care I fed thee still, And daintily I nourish'd thee What ill returns dost thou allow!- This frozen and benumbed snake, But now it stings that breast which made it warm. Straight will it choak up and devour Each wholesome herb and beauteous flower! Nay, unless something soon I do, 'Twill kill, I fear, my very laurel too, But now all's gone-I now, alas! complain, Declare, protest, and threat, in vain; Since, by my own unforc'd consent, The traitor has my government, And is so settled in the throne, That 'twere rebellion now to claim mine own. THE FRAILTY, I Know 'tis sordid, and 'tis low, (All this as well as you I know) Which I so hotly now pursue, (I know all this as well as you) 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, I rage sometimes, and bite my chain; Yet to what 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 ? COLDNESS. As water fluid is, till it do grow Solid and fixt by cold; So in warm seasons Love does loosely flow; So the Sun's amorous play Kisses the ice away. You may in vulgar loves find always this! Of a more firm a perfect nature is ; ENJOYMENT. THEN like some wealthy island thou shalt lie, And like the sea about it, I; Thou, like fair Albion to the sailor's sight, As if like doves w' engender'd there: Nought shall my hands or lips control; Men, out of wisdom; women, out of pride, Here black, there brown, here tawny, and there white; Thou flatterer! which comply'st with every sight! Thou Babel, which confound'st the eye With unintelligible variety! Who hast no certain what, nor where ; But vary'st still, and dost thyself declare Inconstant, as thy she-professors are. Beauty! Love's scene and masquerade, So gay by well-plac'd lights and distance made; False coin, with which th'impostor cheats us still; The stamp and colour good, but metal il!! Which light or base we find, when we Weigh by enjoyment, and examine thee! For, though thy being be but show, 'Tis chiefly night which men to thee allow : And chuse t'enjoy thee, when thou least art Thou. Beauty! thou active, passive ill! Which dy'st thyself as fast as thou dost kill! Thou tulip, who thy stock in paint dost waste, Neither for physic good, nor smell, nor taste. Beauty! whose flames but meteors are, Short-liv'd and low, though thou would'st seem a star; Who dar'st not thine own home descry, That may secure thee; but thou 'ast yet from me Pretending to dwell richly in the eye, A more infallible security; For there's no danger I should tell The joys which are to me unspeakable. SLEEP. Is vain, thou drowsy god! I thee invoke ; Or passage of his spirits to choke, The fate of Egypt I sustain, To overflowings of the heart below. Thou, who dost men (as nights to colours do) Come, thou just god! and equal me In that condition let me lie, Till Love does me the favour shew: Let her but grant, and then will I Thou scorn'st th' unhappy, and the happy,thee! BEAUTY. BEAUTY! thou wild fantastic ape, Who dost in every country change thy shape! When thou, alas! dost in the fancy lie. Beauty! whose conquests still are made O'er hearts by cowards kept, or else betray'd; Weak victor! who thyself destroy'd must be When Sickness storms, or Time besieges thee! Thou unwholesome thaw to frozen age! Thou strong wine, which youth's fever dost enrage! Thou tyrant, which leav'st no man free! Thou subtle thief, from whom nought safe can be! Thou murderer, which hast kill'd, and devil, which would'st damn me! THE PARTING. As men in Greenland left beheld the Sun And thought upon the sad half-year With such swoln eyes my farewell took : Ah, those blest lands to which bright Thou dost fly! In vain the men of learning comfort me, And know that I the day have lost; Return, return, gay planet of mine East, Of all that shines thon much the best! And, as thou now descend's to sea, More fair and fresh rise up from thence to me! Thou, who in many a propriety, So truly art the Sun to me, |