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T'imagine then that Love should never cease (Love, which is but the ornament of these) Were quite as senseless, as to wonder why

Beauty and colour stay not when we die.

NOT FAIR.

'T IS very true, I thought you once as fair
As women in th' idea are;

Whatever here seems beauteous, seem'd to be
But a faint metaphor of thee:

But then, methoughts, there something shin'd within,

Which cast this lustre o'er thy skin;

Nor could I choose but count it the sun's light,
Which made this cloud appear so bright.
But, since I knew thy falsehood and thy pride,
And all thy thousand faults beside,

A very Moor, methinks, plac'd near to thee,
White as his teeth would seem to be.
So men (they say) by hell's delusions led,
Have ta'en a succubus to their bed;
Believe it fair, and themselves happy call,
Till the cleft foot discovers all :

Then they start from 't, half ghosts themselves with

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So, since against my will I found thee foul,
Deform'd and crooked in thy soul,

My reason straight did to my senses shew,
That they might be mistaken too :

Nay, when the world but knows how false you are,
There's not a man will think

you fair; Thy shape will monstrous in their fancies be,

They'll call their eyes as false as thee.

Be what thou wilt, hate will present thee so
As Puritans do the Pope, and Papists Luther do.

PLATONICK LOVE.

INDEED I must confess,

When souls mix 't is an happiness;
But not complete till bodies too combine,
And closely as our minds together join:
But half of heaven the souls in glory taste,
Till by love in heaven, at last,
Their bodies too arę plac'd.

In thy immortal part

Man, as well as I, thou art;

But something 't is that differs thee and me;
And we must one even in that difference be.
I thee, both as a man and woman, prize;
For a perfect love implies
Love in all capacities.

Can that for true love pass,

When a fair woman courts her glass?

Something unlike must in love's likeness be;
His wonder is, one, and variety;

For he, whose soul nought but a soul can move,

Does a new Narcissus prove,

And his own image love.

That souls do beauty know,

"T is to the bodies' help they owe;

If, when they know 't, they straight abuse that trust,
And shut the body from 't, 't is as unjust

As if I brought my dearest friend to see
My mistress, and at th' instant he
Should steal her quite from me.

THE CHANGE.

LOVE in her sunny eyes does basking play;
Love walks the pleasant mazes of her hair;
Love does on both her lips for ever stray,
And sows and reaps a thousand kisses there:
In all her outward parts Love's always seen;
But, oh! he never went within.

Within, Love's foes, his greatest foes, abide,
Malice, Inconstancy, and Pride :

So, the earth's face trees, herbs, and flowers, do dress,

With other beauties numberless;

But at the centre darkness is, and hell;

There wicked spirits, and there the damned, dwell.

With me, alas! quite contrary it fares;
Darkness and death lie in my weeping eyes,
Despair, and paleness, in my face appears,
And grief, and fear, Love's greatest enemies;
But, like the Persian tyrant, Love within

Keeps his proud court, and ne'er is seen.

Oh! take my heart, and by that means you'll prove Within too stor❜d enough of love :

Give me but yours, I'll by that change so thrive,
That love in all my parts shall live.

So powerful is this change, it render can
My outside Woman, and your inside Man.

CLAD ALL IN WHITE.

FAIREST thing that shines below,
Why in this robe dost thou appear?
Wouldst thou a white most perfect show,
Thou must at all no garment wear:
Thou wilt seem much whiter so,

Than winter when 't is clad with snow.

'T is not the linen shews so fair;

Her skin shines through, and makes it bright:
So clouds themselves like suns appear,
When the sun pierces them with light:
So, lilies in a glass inclose,

The glass will seem as white as those.

.Thou now one heap of beauty art;
Nought outwards, or within, is foul:
Condensed beams make every part;
Thy body's clothed like thy soul;
Thy soul, which does itself display,
Like a star plac'd i' th' milky way.

Such robes the saints departed wear,
Woven all with light divine;
Such their exalted bodies are,
And with such full glory shine:
But they regard not mortals' pain;
Men pray, I fear, to both in vain.

Yet, seeing thee so gently pure,
My hopes will needs continue still;
Thou wouldst not take this garment, sure,
When thou hadst an intent to kill!

Of peace and yielding who would doubt,
When the white flag he sees hung out?

J

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