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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 wouldst e'er have grown

So false or strong to make it all thine own.

At mine own breast with care I fed thee still,

Letting thee suck thy fill;

And daintily I nourish'd thee

With idle thoughts and poetry!

What ill returns dost thou allow !

I fed thee then, and thou dost starve me now.

There was a time when thou wast cold and chill, Nor hadst the power of doing ill;

Into my bosom did I take

This frozen and benumbed snake,

Not fearing from it any harm;

But now it stings that breast which made it warm.

What cursed weed 's this Love! but one grain sow, And the whole field 't will overgrow;

Straight will it choke up and devour

Each wholesome herb and beauteous flower!

Nay, unless something soon I do, "T will 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 't were rebellion now to claim mine own,

THE FRAILTY.

I KNOW 't is sordid and 't is 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;
Frost only can it hold:

A woman's rigour, and disdain,

Does his swift course restrain.

Though constant and consistent now it be,
Yet, when kind beams appear,

It melts, and glides apace into the sea,
And loses itself there.

So the sun's amorous play

Kisses the ice away.

You may in vulgar loves find always this;
But my substantial love

Of a more firm and perfect nature is;
No weathers can it move:

Though heat dissolve the ice again,
The crystal solid does remain.

ENJOYMENT.

THEN like some wealthy island thou shalt lie,
And like the sea about it, I;

Thou, like fair Albion to the sailors' sight,
Spreading her beauteous bosom all in white;
Like the kind Ocean I will be,

With loving arms for ever clasping thee.

But I'll embrace thee gentlier far than so;
As their fresh banks soft rivers do:
Nor shall the proudest planet boast a power
Of making my full love to ebb one hour;
It never dry or low can prove,

Whilst thy unwasted fountain feeds my love.

Such heat and vigour shall our kisses bear,

As if like doves we 'engender'd there: No bound nor rule my pleasures shall endure, In love there's none too much an Epicure:

Nought shall my hands or lips control; I'll kiss thee through, I'll kiss thy very soul.

Yet nothing but the night our sports shall know;
Night, that's both blind and silent too!
Alphæus found not a more secret trace,
His lov'd Sicanian fountain to embrace,

Creeping so far beneath the sea,
Than I will do t'enjoy and feast on thee.

Men, out of wisdom; women, out of pride,

The pleasant thefts of love do hide : That may secure thee; but thou 'ast yet from me A more infallible security;

For there's no danger I should tell The joys which are to me unspeakable.

SLEEP.

IN vain, thou drowsy God! I thee invoke ;
For thou, who dost from fumes arise-
Thou, who man's soul dost overshade
With a thick cloud by vapours made---
Canst have no power to shut his eyes,
Or passage of his spirits to choke,

Whose flame's so pure that it sends up no smoke.

Yet how do tears but from some vapours rise?
Tears, that bewinter all my year?

The fate of Egypt I sustain,

And never feel the dew of rain,

From clouds which in the head appear;

But all my too much moisture owe

To overflowings of the heart below.

Thou, who dost men (as nights to colours do)

Bring all to an equality!

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