THE MISTRESS, OR SEVERAL COPIES OF LOVE-VERSES.  
Written by Mr. A. Cowley, In his Youth, and now since his Death thought fit to be published.  
— Haeret lateri lethalis arundo.  
LONDON, Printed for Rowland Reynolds at the Sun and Bible in Postern-Street near Moregate, 1667.   

To the Reader.  
A Correct Copy of these verses and (as I am told) written by the Author himself, falling into my hands, I thought fit to send to the Press; chiefly because I hear that the same is like to be done from a more imperfect one. It is not my good fortune to be acquainted with the Author any further than his fame (by which he is well known to all Englishmen) and to that I am sure I shall do a service by this Publication: Not doubting but that, if these verses please his Mistress but half so well, as they will generally do the rest the world, he will be so well contented, as to forgive at least this my boldness, which proceeds only from my Love of Him, who will gain reputation, and of my Country, which will receive delight from it. I shall use no more preface, nor 〈◊〉 one word (besides these few lines) to the Book; but faithfully and nakedly transmit it to thy view, just as it came to mine, unless perhaps some typographical faults get into it, which I will take care shall be as few as may be, and desire a pardon for them if there be any.  
Farewell.   

THE MISTRESS, OR SEVERAL COPIES OF LOVE VERSES.  

The Request.  

1.  
I ' Have often wished to love; what shall I do?  
Me still the cruel Boy does spare;  
And a double task must bear,  
First to woo him, & then a Mistress too,  
Come at last and strike for shame;  
If thou art any thing besides a name.  
I'll think Thee else no God to be;  
But Poets rather Gods, who first created Thee.   

2.  
I ask not one in whom all beauties flow,  
Let me but love, what ere she be,  
She cannot seem deformed to me;  
And I would have her seem to others so.  
Desire takes wings and straight does fly,  
It stays not dully to inquire the why  
When I'm that thing a Lover grown.  
I shall not see with others Eyes, scarce with mine own.   

3.  
If she be coy and scorn my noble fire,  
If her i'll heart I cannot move,  
Why I'll enjoy the very Love,  
And make a Mistress of mine own Desire.  
Flames their most vigorous heat do hold,  
And purest light, if compassed round with cold:  
So when sharp Winter means most harm,  
The spring Plants are by the Snow itself kept warm.   

4.  
But do not touch my heart, and so be gone;  
Strike deep thy burning arrows in:  
lukewarmness I account a sin  
As great in Love, as in Religion.  
Come armed with flames, for I would prove  
All the extremities of mighty Love.  
Th' excess of heat is but a fable;  
We know the torrid Zone is now found habitable.   

5.  
Among the Woods and Forests thou art found,  
There Boars and Lions thou dost tame;  
Is not my heart a noble game?  
Let Venus Men, and Beasts Diana wound.  
Thou dost the Birds thy Subjects make;  
Thy nimble feathers do their wings o'ertake:  
At every spring they chant thy praise;  
Make me but love like them, I'll sing thee better lays.   

6.  
What service can mute Fishes do to Thee?  
Yet against them by Dart prevails,  
Piercing the armour of their Scales;  
And still thy seaborn Mother lives i'th'Sea:  
Dost thou deny only to me  
The no-great privilege of Captivity?  
I beg or challenge here thy Bow;  
Either thy pity to me, or else thine anger show.   

7.  
Come; or I'll teach the world to scorn that Bow:  
I'll teach them thousand wholesome arts  
Both to resist and cure thy darts,  
More than thy skilful Ovid ere did know.  
Music of sighs thou shalt not hear,  
Nor drink no more on wretched Lovers Tear:  
Nay, unless soon thou woundest me,  
My Verses shall not only wound, but murder Thee.    

The Thraldom.  

1.  
I Came, I saw, and was undone;  
The Lightning through my bones & marrow run;  
A pointed pain pierced deep my heart;  
A swift, cold trembling seized on every part;  
My head turned round, nor could it bear  
The Poison that was entered there.   

2.  
So a destroying Angels breath  
Blows in the Plague, and with it hasty Death.  
Such was the pain, did so begin  
To the poor wretch, when Legion entered in.  
Forgive me, God, I cried; for I  
Flattered myself I was to die.   

3.  
But quickly to my Cost I found,  
'Twas cruel Love not Death had made the wound.  
Death a more generous rage does use;  
Quarter to all he conquers does refuse.  
Whilst Love with barbarous mercy saves  
The vanquished lives to make them slaves.   

4:  
I am thy slave then; let me know,  
Hard Master, the great ask I have to do:  
Who pride and scorn do undergo,  
In tempests and rough Seas thy Galleys row;  
Thy part, and groan, and sigh, but find  
Thy sighs increase the angry wind.   

5.  
Like an Egyptian Tyrant, some  
Thou weariest out, in building but a Tomb.  
Others with sad, and tedious art  
Labour i'the Quarries of a stony Heart;  
Of all the works thou dost assign  
To all the several slaves of thine,  
Employ me, mighty Love, to dig the Mine.    

The Given Lover.  

1:  
I'll on; for what should hinder me  
From Loving, and Enjoying Thee?  
Thou canst not those exceptions make,  
Which thin-sould, under-mortalls take;  
That my Fate's too mean and low;  
'Twere pity I should love thee so,  
If that dull cause could hinder me  
In Loving, and Enjoying thee.   

2.  
It does not me a whit displease,  
That the rich all honours seize;  
That you all Titles make your own,  
Are Valiant, Learned, Wise alone.  
But if you claim o'er Women too  
The power which over men ye do;  
If you alone must Lovers be;  
For that, Sirs, you must pardon me.   

3.  
Rather than lose what does so near  
Concern my Life, and Being here,  
I'll some such crooked ways invent,  
As you, or your Forefathers went:  
I'll flatter or oppose the King,  
Turn Puritan, or Any thing;  
I'll force my Mind to arts so new:  
Grow Rich, and Love as well as You.   

4.  
But rather thus let me remain,  
As Man in Paradise did reign;  
When perfect Love did so agree  
With Innocence and Poverty.  
Adam did no Jointure give,  
Himself was Jointure to his Eve:  
Untouched with Av'arice yet or Pride,  
The Rib came freely back to ' his side.   

5.  
A curse upon the man who taught  
Women, that Love was to be bought;  
Rather dote only on your Gold,  
And that with greedy av'arice hold;  
For if Woman too submit  
To that, and sell herself for it,  
Fond Lover, you a Mistress have  
Of her, that's but your Fellow slave.   

6.  
What should those Poets mean of old  
That made their God to woo in God?  
Of all men sure They had no cause  
To bind Love to such costly Laws;  
And yet I scarcely blame them now;  
For who, alas, would not allow,  
That Women should such gifts receive,  
Could They themselves Be what They give.   

7.  
If thou, my Dear, Thyself shouldst prise,  
Alas, what value would suffice?  
The Spaniard could not do't, though he  
Should to both Indies jointure thee.  
Thy beauties therefore wrong will take,  
If thou shouldst any bargain make,  
To give All will befit thee well;  
But not at Under-Rates to sell.   

8.  
Bestow thy Beauty then on me,  
Freely, as Nature gave't to Thee;  
'Tis an exploded Popish thought  
To think that Heaven may be bought.  
Prayers, Hymns, & Praises are the way;  
And those my thankful Muse shall pay;  
The Body in my verse enshrined,  
Shall grow immortal as thy Mind.   

9  
I'll fix thy title next in fame  
To Sacharissas' well-sung name.  
So faithfully will I declare  
What all thy wondrous beauties are,  
That when at the last great Assize  
All Women shall together rise,  
Men straight shall cast their eyes on Thee,  
And know at first that Thou art She.    

The Spring.  

1.  
THough you be absent here, I needs must say,  
The Trees as beauteous are, and flowers as gay,  
As ever they were wont to be;  
Nay the Birds rural music too  
Is as Melodious and free,  
As if they sung to pleasure you:  
I saw a Rose But ope this morn; I'll swear  
The blushing Morning oped not more fair.   

2.  
How could it be so fair, and you away?  
How could the Trees be beauteous, Flowers so gay?  
Could they remember but last year,  
How you did Them, They you delight,  
The sprouting leaves which saw you here,  
And called their Fellows to the sight,  
Would, looking round for the same sight in vain,  
Creep back into their silent Barks again.   

3.  
Where ere you walked, trees were as reverend made,  
As when of old Gods dwelled in every shade.  
Is't possible they should not know,  
What loss of honour they sustain,  
That thus they smile and flourish now,  
And still their former pride retain?  
Dull creatures! 'tis not without cause that she,  
Who fled the God of wit, was made a Tree.   

4.  
In ancient times sure they much wiser were,  
When they rejoiced the Thracian verse to hear;  
In vain did nature bid them stay  
When Orpheus had his song begun,  
They called their wondering roots away  
And bade them silent to him run.  
How would those learned trees have followed you?  
You would have drawn Them, and their Poet too.   

5.  
But who can blame them now? for, since you're gone,  
They are here the only Fair, and Shine alone.  
You did their Natural Rights invade;  
Where ever you did walk or sit,  
The thickest Bows could make no shade,  
Although the Sun had granted it:  
The fairest Flowers could please no more, near you,  
Then Painted flowers, set next to them, could do.   

6.  
When e'er then you come hither, that shall be  
The time, which this to others is, to Me.  
The little joys which here are now  
The name of Punishments do bear;  
When by their sight they let us Know  
How we deprived of greater are.  
'Tis you the best of Seasons with you bring;  
This is for Beasts, and that for Men the Spring.    

Written in juice of Lemon.  

1.  
WHilst what I write I do not see,  
I dare thus eve to you write Poetry.  
Ah foolish muse, which dost so high aspire,  
And knowest her judgement well  
How much it does thy power excel,  
Yet dar'st be ready by, thy just doom, the Fire.   

2.  
Alas, thou thinkest thyself secure,  
Because thy form is Innocent and Pure:  
Like Hypocrites, which seem unspotted here;  
But when they sadly come to die,  
And the last Fire their Truth must try,  
Scrauld o'er like thee, and blotted they appear.   

3.  
Go then, but reverently go,  
And, since thou needs must sin, confess it too:  
Confess't, and with humility clothe thy shame;  
For thou, who else must burned be  
An Heretic, if she pardon thee,  
Maysed like a Martyr then enjoy the Flame.   

4.  
But if her wisdom grow severe,  
And suffer not her goodness to be there;  
If her large mercies cruelly it restrain;  
Be not discouraged, but require  
A more gentle Ordeall Fire,  
And bid her by Love's Flames read it again.   

5.  
Strange power of heat, thou yet dost show  
Like winter earth, naked, or clothed with snow,  
But, as the quickening sun approaching near,  
The Planets arise up by degrees,  
A sudden paint adorns the trees  
And all kind Nature's Characters appear.   

6.  
So, nothing yet in Thee is seen,  
But soon as Genial heat warms thee within,  
A newborn Wood of various Lines there grows;  
Here but an A, and there a B,  
Here sprouts a V, and there a T,  
And all the flourishing Letters stand in Rows.   

7.  
Still, silly Paper, thou wilt think  
That all this might as well be writ with Ink.  
Oh no; there's sense in this, and Mystery;  
Thou now must change thy Author's name,  
And to Hand lay noble claim;  
For as She Reads, she Makes the words in Thee.   

8.  
Yet if thine own unworthiness  
Will still, that thou art mine, not Hers, confess;  
Consume thyself with Fire before her Eyes,  
And so her Grace and Pity move;  
The Gods, though Beasts they do not Love,  
Yet like them when they're burnt in Sacrifice.    

Inconstancy.  
FIve years ago (says story) I loved you,  
For which you call me most inconstant now;  
Pardon me, Madam, you mistake the man;  
For I am not the same that I was than;  
No Flesh is now the same 'twas then in me,  
And that my mind is changed yourself may see.  
The same Thoughts to retain still, and Intents  
Were more inconstant far; for Accidents  
Must of all things most strangely Inconstant prove,  
If from one Subject they t'another move;  
My Members then, the Father Members were  
From whence These take their birth, which now are here.  
If then this Body love what th'other did,  
'Twere Incest, which by Nature is forbid.  
You might as well this Day inconstant name,  
Because the Wether is not still the same,  
That it was yesterday, or blame the Year,  
'Cause the Spring Flowers, and Autumn fruit does bear.  
The world's a Scene of Changes, and to be  
Constant, in Nature were Inconstancy:  
For 'twere to break the Laws herself has made,  
Our Substances themselves do fleet, and fade;  
The most fixed Being, still doth move and fly,  
Swift as the Wings of time 'tis measured by.  
T'imagine then that Love will never cease  
(Love which is but the Ornament of these)  
Were quite as senseless, as to wonder why  
Beauty and Colour stays not when we die.   

Not Fair.  
'tIs very true, I thought you once as fair,  
As women in the Idea are.  
What ever here seems beauteous, seemed to be  
But a faint Metaphor of Thee.  
But then (me thoughts) there something shined 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 (me thinks) placed near to Thee,  
White as his Teeth would seem to be.  
So men (they say) by hell's delusion 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 fear;  
And Devil as, 'tis, it does appear.  
So since against my will I found Thee foul,  
Deformed and crooked in thy Soul,  
My Reason straight did to my Senses show,  
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.   

Platonic love.  

1.  
INdeed I must confess,  
When Souls mix 'tis an happiness:  
But not complete till Bodies too do join,  
And both our Wholes into one Whole combine:  
But half of Heaven the Souls in glory taste,  
Till by Love in Heaven at last,  
Their Bodies too are placed.   

2.  
In thy immortal part  
Man, as well as I thou art.  
But something 'tis that differs Thee and Me:  
And we must one even in that difference be.  
ay Thee, both as a man, and woman prize:  
For a perfect Love implies  
Love in all Capacities.   

3.  
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.   

4.  
That souls do beauty know,  
'Tis to the Bodies help they owe;  
If when they owed they straight abuse that trust,  
And shut the Body from't, 'tis 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.  

1.  
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.   

2.  
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.   

3.  
With me alas quite contrary it fares;  
Darkness and Death lies in my weeping eyes,  
Despair and Paleness in my face appears,  
And Grief and Fear Loves greatest enemies;  
But, like the Persian Tyrant, Love within  
Keeps his proud Court and ne'er is seen.   

4.  
Oh take my Heart, and by what means you'll prove  
Within too stored 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.  

1.  
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,  
Then Winter when 'tis clad with Snow.   

2.  
'Tis not the Linen shows 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 enclose,  
The Glass will seem as white as those.   

3.  
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 placed i'th' the Milky way.   

4.  
Such robes the Saints departed wear,  
Wooven all with Light divine;  
Such their exalted Bodies are,  
And with such full glory shine.  
But oh, they ' tend not mortals pain:  
Men pray, I fear, to both in vain.   

5.  
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 Flags he sees hung out?    

Leaving Me, and then loving many.  
SO Men who once have cast the truth away,  
Forsook by God, do strange wild lusts obey;  
So the vain Gentiles, when they left t'adore  
One Deity, could not stop at thousands more.  
Their zeal was senseless strait, and boundless grown:  
They worshipped many a Beast, and many a Stone.  
Ah fair Apostate! couldst thou think to flee  
From Truth and Goodness, yet keep Unity?  
I reigned alone, and my blessed Self could call  
The Universal Monarch of her All.  
Mine, mine her fair East-Indies were above,  
Where those Suns rise that cheer the world of Love;  
Where Beauties shine like gems of richest price:  
Where Coral grows, and every breath is spice:  
Mine too her rich West-Indies were below,  
Where Mines of gold and treasures grow.  
But as, when the Pellaean Conqueror died,  
Many small Princes did his Crown divide,  
So since my Love has vanquished world forsaken,  
Murdered by poisons from her falsehoods took,  
An hundred petty Kings claim each their part,  
And rend that glorious Empire of her Heart.   

My Heart discovered.  
HEr body is so gently bright,  
Clear, and transparent to the sight,  
(Clear as fair Crystal to the view,  
Yet soft as that, ere Stone it grew;)  
That through her flesh, me thinks, is seen  
The brightest Soul that dwells within:  
Our eyes through th' radiant covering pass,  
And see that Lily through its Glass.  
I through her Breast, her Heart espy,  
As Souls in hearts do Souls descry.  
I see't with gentle Motions beat;  
I see light in't but find no heat.  
Within like Angels in the sky,  
A thousand gilded thoughts do fly:  
Thoughts of bright and noblest kind,  
Fair and chaste, as Mother Mind.  
But oh, what other heart is there,  
Which sighs and crowds to hers so near?  
'Tis all on flame, and does like fire  
To that, as to its Heaven aspire.  
The wounds are many in't and deep;  
Still does it bleed, and still does weep,  
Whose ever wretched Heart it be,  
I cannot choose but grieve to see:  
What pity in my Breast does reign?  
Me thinks I feel all its pain.  
So torn and so defaced it lies,  
That it could neera be known by th' eyes:  
But, Oh, at last I heard it groan,  
And knew by th'Voice that 'twas mine own:  
So poor Alcione, when she saw  
A shipwrackt body to'wards her draw  
Beat by the waves, let fall a Tear,  
Which only then did Pity wear:  
But when the Corpse on shore were cast,  
Which she her husband found at last:  
What should the wretched widow do?  
Grief changed her straight, away she flew,  
Turned to a Bird: and so at last shall I  
Both from my Murdered Heart, and Murderer fly.   

Answer to the Platonics.  
SO Angels love, so let them for me;  
When I'm all Soul, such shall my Love too be:  
Who nothing here but like a Spirit would do,  
In a short time beleeve'twill be one too,  
But'shal our Love do what in Beasts we see?  
Even Beasts eat too, but not so well as We.  
And you as justly might in thirst refuse,  
The use of Wine, because Beasts Water use,  
They taste those pleasures as they do their food;  
Undressed tstey take't, devour it raw and crude:  
But to us men, Love cooks it at his fire,  
And adds the poignant sauce of sharp desire,  
Beasts do the same, 'tis true: but ancient fame  
Says, Gods themselves turned Beasts to do the same.  
The Thunderer,, who, without the female bed,  
Could Goddesses bring forth from out his head,  
Chose rather Mortals this way to create;  
So much he 'steemd his pleasure, 'bove his state.  
Ye talk of fires which shine, but never burn;  
In this cold world they'll hardly serve our turn:  
As useless despairing Lovers grown,  
As Lambent flames, to men i'th' Frigid Zone.  
The Sun does his pure fires on earth bestow  
With Nuptial warmth, to bring forth things below;  
Such is Love's noblest and divinest heat,  
That warms like his, and does like his beget.  
Lust you call this, a name to yours most just,  
If an inordinate Desire be Lust:  
Pygmalion, loving what none can enjoy,  
More lustful was, than the hot youth of Troy.   

The vain Love. Loving one first because she could love no body, Afterwards loving her with desire.  
WHat newfound Witchcraft was in thee,  
With thine own Cold to kindle Me?  
Strange art! like him that should devise  
To make a Burning-Glasse of Ice:  
When winter so the Plants would harm,  
Her snow itself does keep them warm:  
Fool that I was! who having found  
A rich and Sunny Diamond,  
Admired the hardness of the Stone:  
But not the light with which it shone:  
Your brave and haughty scorn of all  
Was stately, and Monarchical.  
All Gentleness with that esteemed  
A dull and slavish virtue seemed:  
Should you have yielded then to me,  
You'had lost what most I loved in thee:  
For who would serve one, whom he sees  
That he can Conquer if he please▪  
It fared with me, as if a slave  
In Triumph lead, that does perceive  
With what a gay Majestic pride  
His Conqueror through the streets does ride▪  
Should be contented with his woe,  
Which makes up such a comely show.  
I sought not from thee a return,  
But without Hopes or Fears did burn:  
My covetous Passion did approve  
The Hoarding up, not Use of Love.  
My Love a kind of Dream was grown,  
A Foolish but a Pleasant one:  
From which I'm wakened now, but oh,  
Prisoners to die are wakened so.  
For now my Fires and Wishes are  
Nothing but Longings with Despair.  
Despair, whose torments no men sure  
But Lovers and the Damned endure.  
Her scorn I doted once upon,  
Ill object for Affection.  
But since, alas, too much 'tis proved  
That yet 'twas something that I loved:  
Now my desires are worse and flee  
At an Impossibility:  
Desires, which whilst so high they soar,  
Are proud as that I loved before.  
What lover can like me complain,  
Who first loved vainly, next in vain?   

The Soul.  

1.  
IF mine Eyes do ere declare  
They'have seen a second thing that's fair:  
Or Ears that they have Music found,  
Besides thy Voice in any Sound;  
If my taste do ever meet,  
After thy Kiss with aught that's sweet;  
If my abused Touch allow,  
Ought to be smooth, or soft but You:  
If, what seasonable Springs,  
Or the Eastern Summer brings,  
Do my Smell persuade at all  
Ought Perfume; but thy Breath to call:  
If all my senses Objects be  
Not contracted into Thee,  
And so through Thee more powerful pass,  
As Beams do through a Burning Glass:  
If all things that in Nature are  
Either soft, or sweet, or fair,  
Are not in thee so Epitomised,  
May I as worthless seem to Thee  
As all, but Thou, appears to Me.   

2.  
If I ever Anger know  
Till some wrong be done to You;  
If Gods or Kings my Envy move,  
Without their Crowns crowned by thy Love;  
If ever I an hope admit,  
Without thy Image stamped on it:  
Or any fear till I begin  
To find that You're concerned therein;  
If a Joy ere come to Me,  
That tastes of any thing but Thee:  
If any Sorrow touch my Mind,  
Whilst You are well and not unkind:  
If I a minute's space debate,  
Whether I shall curse and hate:  
The things beneath thy hatred fall,  
Though ●ll the World Myself and all:  
And for Love; if ever I  
Appear to it again so nigh,  
As to allow a Toleration  
To the least glimmering Inclination;  
If thou alone do not control  
All those Tyrants of my Soul,  
And to thy Beauties tiest them so,  
That constant they as Habits grow;  
If any Passion of my Heart,  
By any force, or any art,  
Be brought to move one step from Thee,  
Mayst Thou no Passion have for Me.   

3.  
If my busy Imagination  
Do not Thee in all things fashion:  
So that all Fair Species be  
Hyeroglyphick marks of Thee;  
If when She her sports does keep,  
(The lower Soul being all asleep)  
She play one Dream with all her art  
Where Thou hast not the longest part.  
If ought get place in my Remembrance  
Without some badge of thy resemblance,  
So that thy parts become to me  
A kind of Art of Memory:  
If my Understanding do  
Seek any Knowledge but of You  
If she do near thy Body prise  
Her Bodies of Philosophies,  
If She to the Will do show  
Ought desirable but You,  
Or if That would not rebel,  
Should she another Doctrine tell:  
If my Will do not resign  
All her Liberty to thine;  
If she would not follow Thee,  
Though Fate and Thou shouldst disagree:  
And if (for I a curse will give,  
Such as shall force thee to believe)  
My soul be not entirely Thine,  
May thy dear Body never be Mine.    

The Passions.  

1.  
FRom Hate, Fear, Hope, Anger, and Envy free  
And all the Passions else that be,  
In vain I boast of Liberty,  
In vain this State a Freedom call:  
Since I have Love, and Love is all:  
Sot that I am, who think it fit to brag,  
That I have no Disease beside the Plague▪   

2.  
So in a zeal the Sons of Israel,  
Sometimes upon their Idols fell:  
And they deposed the powers of Hell,  
Baal, and Astarte down they threw,  
And Accaron, and Molock too;  
All this imperfect Piety did no good,  
Whilst yet alas the Calf of Bethel stood.   

3.  
Fond I boast that I have dressed my Vine  
With painful Art, and that the wine  
Is of a taste rich and divine,  
Since love by mixing poison there,  
Has made it worse than vinegar.  
Love even the taste of Nectar changes so,  
That Gods chose rather water here below.   

4.  
Fear, Anger, hope, all passions else that be,  
Drive this one Tyrant out of Me.  
And practise all your Tyranny;  
Thec hang of ils some good will do;  
Th' oppressed wretched Indians so,  
Being floves by the great Spanish Monarch made,  
Call in the States of Holland to their aid.    

Wisdom.  
'TIs mighty Wise that you would now be thought  
With your grave Rules from musty Morals brought,  
Through which some streaks too of Div'nity ran,  
Partly of Monk, and partly Puritan:  
With tedious Repetitions too y'ave ta'en  
Often the name of Vanity in vain.  
Things which I take it, friend you'd ne'er recite,  
Should she I love, but say t'you, Come at night.  
The wisest King refused all pleasures quite,  
Till Wisdom from above did him enlight:  
But when that gifts his ignorance did remove,  
Pleasures he chose and placed them all in Love;  
And if by event the counsels may be seen,  
This wisdom 'twas that brought the Southern Queen.  
She came not like a good old Wife to know  
The wholesome nature of all plants that grow:  
Nor did so far from her own Country room,  
To cure Scaled heads, and broken shins at home:  
She came for that which more befits all Wives,  
The art of Giving, not of Saving lives.   

The Despair.  

1.  
BEneath this gloomy shade,  
By Nature only for my sorrows made,  
I'll spend this voice in cries,  
In tears I'll waste these eyes  
By Love so vainly fed;  
So Lust of old the Deluge punished.  
Ah wretched youth, said I!  
Ah wretched youth! twice did I sadly cry;  
Ah wretched youth! the fields and floods reply.   

2.  
When thoughts of Love I entertain,  
I meet no words, but Never, and In vain.  
Never (alas) that dreadful name,  
Which fewells the infernal flame:  
Never, my time to come must ●●st;  
In vain, torments the present and the past.  
In vain, in vain! said I▪  
In vain, in vain! twice did I sadly cry;  
In vain, in vain, the fields and floods reply.   

3.  
No more shall fields or floods do so;  
For I to shades more dark and silent go:  
All this world's noise appears to me  
A dull ill-acted Comedy:  
No comfort to my wounded sight  
In the Sun's busy and impert'nent Light.  
Then down I laid my head;  
Down on cold earth, and for a while was dead:  
And my freed Soul to a strange Somewhere fled.   

4.  
Ah sottish Soul, said I:  
When back t'o his Cage again I saw it fly:  
Fool to resume his broken chain!  
And row his Calley here again!  
Fool to that body to return,  
Where it condemned and destined is to burn!  
Once dead, how can it be,  
Death should a thing so pleasant seem to Thee,  
That thou shouldst come to live it o'er again in Me?    

The Wish.  

1.  
WEll then, I now do plainly see,  
This busy world and I shall ne'er agree:  
The very honey of all earthly joy  
Does of all meats the soon cloy,  
And they me thinks deserve my pity,  
Who for it can endure the stings,  
The Crowd, and Buz, and Murmurings  
Of this great Hive, the City.   

2.  
Ah, yet, ere I descend to th' grave  
May I a small House, and large Garden have!  
And a few Friends, and many Books, both true,  
Both wise, and both delightful too!  
And since Love near will from me flee,  
A Mistress moderately fair,  
And good as Guardian Angels are,  
Only beloved, and loving me.   

3.  
Oh, Founts! Oh, when in you shall I  
Myself, eased of unpeacefull thoughts, espy?  
Oh, Fields! Oh, Woods! when, shall I be made  
The happy Tenant of your shade?  
Here's the spring head of Pleasure's flood:  
Here's wealthy Natures Treasury,  
Where all the Riches lie that she  
Has coined and stamped for good.   

4.  
Pride and Ambition here,  
Only in far fetched Metaphors appear:  
Here nought but winds can hurtful Murmurs scatter,  
And nought but echo flatter.  
The Gods when they descended, hither  
From heaven did always choose their way;  
And therefore we may boldly say,  
That 'tis the way too thither.   

5.  
How happy here should I,  
And one dear She, live, and embracing die?  
She who is all! the world, and can exclude  
In deserts solitude.  
I should then this only fear,  
Lest men, when they my pleasures see,  
Should all come im'itate Me,  
And so make a City here.    

My Diet.  

1.  
NOw by my Love, the greatest Oath that is,  
None loves you half so well as I:  
I do not ask your Love for this,  
But for heaven's sake believe me, or I die.  
No Servant ere, but did deserve  
His Master should believe that he does serve;  
And I'll ask no more wages, though I starve.   

2.  
'tis no luxurious Diet this, and sure  
I shall not by't too lusty prove;  
Yet shall it willingly endure,  
If't can but keep together Life and Love.  
Being your Prisoner and your slave  
I do not Feasts and Banquets look to have,  
A little Bread and Water's all I crave.   

3.  
O'n a sigh of Pity I a year can live,  
One Tear will keep me twenty at least,  
Fifty a gentle look will give;  
An hundred years on one kind word I'll feast:  
A thousand more will added be  
If you an Inclination have for Me:  
And all beyond is vast Eternity.    

The Thief.  

1.  
THou robbest my Days of business and delights,  
Of sleep thou robbest my Nights:  
Ah lovely Thief, what wilt thou do?  
What? rob me of Heaven too?  
Even in my prayers thou hauntest me;  
And I, with wild Idolatry  
Begin to God, and end them all, to Thee.   

2.  
Is it a Sin to Love, that it should thus  
Like an ill Conscience torture us?  
What ere I do, where ere I go,  
(None Guiltless ere was haunted so)  
Still, still, me thinks thy face I view,  
And still thy shape does me pursue,  
As if, not you Me, but I had murdered You.   

3.  
From books I strive some remedy to take,  
But thy Name all the Letters make;  
What ere 'tis writ, I find that there,  
Like Points and Commas every where;  
Me blest for this let no man hold,  
For I, as Midas did of old,  
Perish by turning every thing to Gold.   

4.  
What do I seek, alas, or what do I  
Attempt in vain from thee to fly?  
For making thee my Deity  
I gave thee then Ubiquity.  
My pains resemble Hell in this;  
The divine presence there too is,  
But to torment Men, not to give them bliss.    

All over, Love.  

1.  
'tIs well, 'tis well with them (say I)  
Whose short lived Passions with themselves can die:  
For none can be unhappy, who  
'Midst all his ills a time does know  
(Though ne'er so long) when he shall not be so.   

1.  
What ever parts of Me remain,  
Those parts will still the Love of Thee retain;  
For 'twas not only in my Heart,  
But like a God by powerful Art,  
'Twas all in all, and all in every Part.   

3.  
My Affection no more perish can  
Then the first Matter that compounds a Man.  
Hereafter if one Dust of Me  
Mixed with another's Substance be,  
'Twill Leaven that whole Lump with Love of Thee.   

4.  
Let Nature if she please disperse  
My Atoms over all the Universe,  
At the last they easily shall,  
Themselves know, and together call,  
For thy Love, like a Mark, is stamped on all.    

Love and Life.  

1.  
NOw sure, within this twelvemonth passed  
I ' have loved at least some twenty years or more:  
The account of Love runs much more fast  
Then that with which our Life does score:  
So though my Life be short, yet I may prove  
The great Methusalem of Love.   

2.  
Not that Love's Hours or Minutes are  
Shorter than those our Being's measured by:  
But they're more close compacted far,  
And so in lesser room do lie.  
Thin airy things extend themselves in space,  
Things solid took up little place.   

3.  
Yet Love, alas, and Life in Me  
Are not two several things, but purely one,  
At once how can there in it be  
A double different Motion?  
O yes, there may: for so the self same Sun,  
At once does slow and swiftly run.   

4.  
Swiftly his daily course he goes,  
And walks his Annual with a statelier pace;  
And does three hundred rounds enclose  
Within one yearly Circles space.   

5.  
When Soul does to myself refer,  
'Tis then my life, and does but slowly move;  
But when it does relate to her,  
It swiftly flies, and then is love.  
Love's my Diurnal course, divided right  
'Twixt Hope and Fear, my Day and Night.    

The Bargain.  

1.  
TAke heed, take heed thou lovely Maid,  
Not be by glittering ills betrayed;  
Thyself for Money? oh, let no man know  
The Price of beauty fallen so low!  
What dangers oughtest thou not to dread,  
When Love that's Blind, is by blind Fortune led?   

2.  
The foolish Indian that sells  
His precious Gold for beads and bells,  
Does a more wise and gainful traffic hold,  
Then thou who thy self for gold.  
What gains in such a bargain are?  
he'll in thy Mines dig better Treasures far.   

3.  
Can Gold, alas, with Thee compare?  
The Sun that makes it's not so fair;  
The Sun which can nor make nor ever see  
A thing so beautiful as Thee  
In all the journeys he does pass,  
Though the Sea served him for a looking glass.   

4.  
Bold was the wretch that cheapened Thee,  
Since Magus none so bold as he,  
thou'rt so divine a thing, that Thee to buy,  
Is to be counted Simony;  
Too dear he'll find his sordid price,  
Has forfeited that, and the Benefice.   

5.  
If it be lawful Thee to buy,  
there's none can pay that rate but I:  
Nothing on earth a fitting price can be,  
But what on earth's most like to Thee.  
And that my Heart does only bear:  
For there Thyself, Thy very self is there.   

6.  
So much thyself does in me live,  
That when for it thyself I give,  
'Tis but to change that piece of Gold for this,  
Whose stamp and value equal is.  
Yet lest the weight be counted bad,  
My Soul and Body, two Grains more, I'll add.    

The long Life.  

1.  
LOve from Time's wings hath stolen the feathers sure,  
He has; and put them to his own:  
For Hours of late as long as Days endure,  
And very Minute's Hours are grown.   

2.  
The various Motions of the turning Year,  
Belong not now at all to Me:  
Eeach Summers' Night does Lucy's now appear,  
Each Winter Day Saint Barnaby.   

3.  
How long a space since first I loved it is?  
To look into a glass I fear;  
And am surprised with wonder when I miss,  
Grey hairs and wrinkles there.   

4.  
Th'old Patriarches age and not their happiness too  
Why does hard fate to us restore?  
Why does Love's Fire thus to Mankind renew,  
What the Flood washed away before?   

5.  
Sure those are happy people that complain,  
O' the shortness of the days of Man:  
Contract mine, Heaven, and bring them back again  
To th' ordinary Span.   

6.  
If when your gift, long Life, I disapprove,  
I too ingrateful seem to be;  
Punish me justly, heaven: make Her to love,  
And then 'twill be too short for Me.    

Council.  

1.  
GEntly, ah gently, Madam touch  
The wound, which you yourself have made;  
That pain must needs be very much,  
Which makes me of your hand afraid.  
Cordials of pity give me now,  
For I too weak for Purge grow.   

2.  
Do but a while with patience stay;  
For Counsel yet will do no good,  
Till Time, and Rest, and Heaven allay,  
The vi'olent burnings of my blood,  
For what effect from this can flow,  
To chide men drunk, for being so?   

3.  
Perhaps the Physic's good you give  
But ne'er to me can useful prove:  
Medicines may Cure, but not Revive;  
And I'm not Sick, but Dead in Love.  
In Love's Hell, not his World, am I;  
At once I Live, am Dead, and Dy.   

4.  
What new found Rhetoric is thine?  
Even thy Disswassions me persuade,  
And thy great power does clearest shine,  
When thy Commands are disobeyed.  
In vain thou bidst me to forbear;  
Obedience were Rebellion here.   

5.  
Thy Tongue comes in as if it meant  
Against thine Eyes t'assist my Heart;  
But different far was his intent:  
For straight the Traitor took their part.  
And by this new foe I'm bereft  
Of all that Little which was left.   

6.  
The act I must confess was wise,  
As a dishonest act could be:  
Well knew the Tongue (alas) your Eyes  
Would be too strong for That, and Me.  
And part o'the Triumph chose to get,  
Rather than be a part of it.    

Resolved to be beloved.  

1.  
'tIs true, I have loved already three or four,  
And shall three or four hundred more:  
I'll love each fair one that I see,  
Till I find one at last that shall love Me.   

2.  
That shall my Canaan be, the fatal soil,  
That ends my wander, and my toil.  
I'll settle there and happy grow;  
The Country does with Milk and Honey flow.   

3.  
The Needle trembles so, and turns about:  
Till it the Northern point find out:  
But constant then and fixed does prove,  
Fixed, that his dearest Pole as soon may move.   

4.  
Then may my Vessel torn and shipwrackt be,  
If it put forth again to Sea:  
It never more abroad shall room,  
Though't could next voyage bring the Indies home.   

5.  
But I must sweat in Love, and labour yet,  
Till I a Competency get.  
They're slothful fools who leave a Trade,  
Till they a moderate Fortune by't have made.   

6.  
Variety I ask not; give me One  
To live perpetually upon.  
The person Love does to us fit,  
Like Manna, hath the Taste of all in it.    

The same.  

1.  
FOr Heaven's sake what d' you mean to do?  
Keep me or let me go, one of the two;  
Youth and warm hours let me not idly lose,  
The little Time that Love does choose;  
If always here I must not stay,  
Let me be gone whilst yet 'tis day;  
Lest I faint and benighted lose my way.   

2.  
'Tis dismal, One so long to love  
In vain, till to love more as vain must prove:  
To hunt so long one nimble prey, till we  
Too weary to take others be;  
Alas 'tis folly to remain,  
And waste our Army thus in vain,  
Before a City, which will ne'er be ta'en.   

3.  
At several hopes wisely to fly,  
Ought not to be esteemed Inconstancy:  
'tis more Inconstant always to pursue  
A thing that always flies from you;  
For that at last may meet a bound,  
But no end can to this be found,  
'Tis nought but a perpetual fruitless Round.   

4.  
When it does Hardness meet and Pride,  
My Love does then rebound t'another side:  
But if it ought that's soft and yielding hit;  
It lodges there, and stays in it.  
What ever 'tis shall first love me,  
That it my Heaven may truly be;  
I shall be sure to give't Eternity.    

The Discovery.  

1.  
BY Heaven I'll tell her boldly that 'tis She;  
Why should She ashamed or angry be,  
To be beloved by Me?  
The Gods may give their Altars o'er;  
They'll smoak but seldom any more,  
If none but Happy Men must them adore.   

2.  
The Lightning, which tall Oaks oppose in vain,  
To strike sometimes does not disdain,  
The humble Furzes of the Plain.  
She being so high, and I so low,  
Her power by this doth greater show,  
Who at such distance gives so sure a blow.   

3.  
Compared with her all things so worthless prove,  
That nought on earth can towards her move  
Till't be exalted by her Love.  
Equal to her, alas, there's none;  
She like a Deity is grown:  
That must Create, or else must be alone.   

4.  
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  
To an undeserving Beggar, than a Thief,    

Against Fruition.  
NO; thou'rt a fool, I'll swear, if ere thou grant:  
Much of my Veneration thou must want,  
Whence once thy kindness puts my Ignorance out  
For a learned Age is always least devout.  
Keep still thy distance; for at once to me  
Goddess and Woman too, thou canst not be;  
Thoured Queen of all that sees thee; and as such  
Must neither Tyrannize, nor yield to much;  
Such freedom give as may admit command,  
But keep the Forts, and Magazines in thine hand.  
thou'rt yet a whole world to me, and dost fill  
My large ambition; but 'tis dangerous still,  
Lest I like the Pellaean Prince should be,  
And weep for other world's hav'ng conquered thee;  
When Love has taken all thou hast away,  
His strength by too much riches will decay.  
Thou in my fancy dost much higher stand,  
Then Women can be placed by Nature's hand;  
And I must needs, I'm sure, a loser be,  
To change Thee, as thou'rt there, for very Thee.  
Thy sweetness is so much within me placed,  
That shouldst thou Nectar give't would spoil the taste,  
Beauty at first moves wonder and delight;  
'Tis Nature's Juggling trick to cheat the sight,  
Wee'admire it, whilst unknown, but after more  
Admire ourselves, for liking it before.  
Love, like a greedy Hawk, if we give way,  
Does over-gorge himself, with his own Prey;  
Of very hopes a surfeit he'll sustain,  
Unless by fears he cast them up again.  
His spirit and sweetness dangers keep alone;  
If once he lose his sting he grows a Drone.   

Love undiscovered.  

1.  
I Others may with safety tell  
The moderate Flames which in them dwell;  
And either find some medicine there,  
Or cure themselves even by Despair;  
My Love's so great that it might prove  
Dangerous to tell her that I Love.  
So tender is my wound, it must not bear  
Any salute though of the kindest air.   

2.  
I would not have her know the pain,  
The Torments for her I sustain.  
Lest too much goodness make her throw  
Her Love upon a Fate too how.  
Forbid it Heaven my Life should be  
Weighed with her least Conveniency;  
No: let me perish rather with my grief,  
Then to her disadvantage find relief.   

3.  
Yet when I die my last breath shall  
Grow bold, and plainly tell her all.  
Like covetous men who ne'er descry  
Their dear hid Treasures till they die.  
Ah fairest Maid, how should it cheer  
My Ghost, to get from Thee a Tear▪  
But take heed: for if me thou Pitiest then,  
Twenty to one but I shall live again.    

The given Heart.  

1.  
I Wonder what those Lovers mean, who say  
They have given their Hearts away.  
Some good kind Lover, tell me how;  
For mine is but a Torment to me now.   

2.  
If so it be, one place both hearts contain,  
For what do they complain?  
What courtesy can Love do more,  
Then join Hearts, that parted were before?   

3.  
Woe to her stubborn Heart, if once mine come  
Into the self same room;  
'Twill tear and blow up all within,  
Like a Granado shot into a Magazine.   

4.  
Then shall Love keep the ashes and torn parts,  
Of both our broken Hearts;  
Shall out of both one new one make  
From hers, th'Allay, from mine the Mettle take.   

5.  
For of her heart, he from the Flames will find  
But little left behind:  
Mine only will remain entire;  
No dross was there, to perish in the Fire.    

The Prophet.  

1.  
TEach me to Love? go teach thyself more wit;  
I chief Professor am of it.  
Teach craft to Scots, and thrift to Jews,  
Teach boldness to the Stews,  
In Tyrant's Courts teach supple flattery,  
Teach Sophisters and Jesuits to lie.  
Teach fire to burn, and winds to blow,  
Teach restless fountains how to flow,  
Teach the dull earth fixed to abide,  
Teach Women kind, Inconstancy and Pride▪  
See if your diligence here will useful prove;  
But, neither, teach not me to Love.   

2.  
The God of Love, if such a thing there be,  
May learn to love from Me.  
He who does boast that he has been  
In every Heart since Adam's sin,  
I'll lay my Life, my Mrs. on't, that's more;  
I'll teach him things he never knew before:  
I'll teach him a Receipt to make  
Tears, which shall understand, and speak:  
I'll teach him Sighs, like those in Death,  
At which the Soul goes out too with the breath▪  
Still the Soul stays, yet still does from me run▪  
As light and heat does with the Sun.   

3.  
'Tis I who Loves Columbus am; 'tis I:  
Who must new Worlds in it descry.  
Rich Worlds that yield of Treasure more,  
Than all that has been known before.  
And yet like his (I fear) my Fate must be,  
To find them out for others, not for Me.  
Mee'times to come, I know it, shall  
Loves last and greatest Prophet call.  
But, ah, what's this, if she refuse,  
To hear the wholesome Doctrines of my Muse?  
If to my share the Prophet's Fate must come.  
Hereafter Fame, here Martyrdom.    

The Resolution.  

1.  
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.   

2.  
For shame let these weak chains be broke;  
Lets our slight bonds like Samson tear;  
And nobly cast away that yoke,  
Which we nor our Forefathers ere could bear.   

3.  
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 Salic Law.    

Called Inconstant.  

1.  
HA! ha! you think y'have killed my fame;  
By this not understood, yet common Name;  
A Name, that's full and proper when assigned  
To Womankind:  
But when you call us so,  
It can at best but for a Metaphor go.   

2.  
Can you the shore Inconstant call,  
Which still as Waves pass by, embraces all?  
That had as lief the same waves always love,  
Did they not from him move?  
Or can you faults with Pilots find  
For changing course, yet never blame the wind?   

3.  
Since drunk with vanity you fell:  
The things turn round to you that steadfast dwell;  
And you yourself who from us take your flight  
Wonder to find us out of sight.  
So the same error ceazes you  
As men in motion think the Trees move too.    

The Welcome.  

1.  
GO, let the fatted Calf be killed;  
My Prodigal's come home at last:  
With noble resolutions filled,  
And filled with sorrow for the past.  
No more will burn with Love or Wine:  
But quite has left his Women, and his Swine.   

2.  
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 fled,  
How often have I heard that you were dead.   

3.  
Had it thou found each woman's breast  
(The Lands where thou hast traveled)  
Either by Savages possessed,  
Or wild, and uninhabited?  
What joy couldst take, or what repose  
In Countries so uncivilised as those?   

4.  
Lust the scorching Dogstar here  
Rages with immoderate heat;  
Whilst Pride the rugged Northern Bear,  
In others makes the cold too great.  
And where these are temperate known,  
The Soil's all barren Land, or rocky Stone.   

5.  
When once or twice you chanced to view  
A rich, well-governed Heart,  
Like China, it admitted you  
But to the Frontiere-part.  
From Paradise shut for evermore,  
What good is't that an angel shut the Door?   

6.  
Welfare the Pride and the Disdain  
And Vanities with Beauty joined,  
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 Flood been out.    

The Heart fled again.  

1.  
FAlse foolish Heart, didst thou not say  
That thou wouldst never leave me more  
Behold again 'tis fled away;  
Fled as far from me as before.  
I strove to bring it again,  
I cried and hollowed after it in vain.   

2.  
Even so the gentle Tyrian Dame,  
When neither Grief nor Love prevail,  
Saw the dear object of her flame  
Th'ingrateful Trojan hoist his sail▪  
Aloud she called to him to stay;  
The wind bore him and her lost words away.   

3.  
The doleful Ariadne so,  
On the wide shore forsaken stood:  
False Theseus, whither dost thou go?  
A fair false Theseus cut the flood.  
But Bacchus came to her relief;  
Bacchus himself's too weak to ease my grief.   

4.  
Ah senseless Heart to take no rest,  
But travail thus eternally!  
Thus to be frozen in every breast!  
And to be scorched in every Eye!  
Wand'ring about like wretched Cain,  
Thrust out, ill used by all, but by none slain!   

5.  
Well, since thou wilt not here remain,  
I'll even to live without Thee try;  
My Head shall take the greater pain,  
And all thy duties shall supply;  
I can more easily live I know  
Without Thee, then without a Mistress thou.    

women's Superstition.  

1.  
OR I'm a very Dunce, or Womankind  
Is a most unintelligible thing:  
I can no Sense, nor no Contexture find,  
Nor their loose parts to Method bring,  
I know not what the Learned may see,  
But they're strange Hebrew things to Me.   

2.  
By Customs and Traditions they live,  
And foolish Ceremonies of antic date  
We Lovers, new and better Doctrines give.  
Yet they continue obstinate  
Preach we, Loves Prophets, what we will,  
Like Jews they keep their old Law still.   

3.  
Before their Mother's Gods they fond fall,  
Vain Idol Gods, that have no Sense nor Mind:  
Honours their Ashtaroth, and Pride their Baal,  
The Thundering Baal of Womankind.  
With twenty other Devils more,  
Which They, as we do Them, adore.   

4.  
But then like Men, both Covetous and Devout,  
Their costly Superstition loath t'omit,  
And yet more loath to issue Moneys out.  
At their own charge to furnish it.  
To these expensive Deities  
The Hearts of men they sacrifice.    

The Soul.  

1.  
SOme dull Philosopher when he hears me say,  
My Soul is from me fled away.  
Nor has of late informed my Body here,  
But in another's breast does lie,  
That neither, is nor will! be I,  
As a Form Servient, and Assisting there.   

2.  
Will cry, Absurd! and ask me how I live:  
And Syllogisms against it give;  
A curse on all your vain Philosophies,  
Which on weak Nature's Law depend,  
And know not how to comprehend  
Love and Religion, those great Mysteries.   

3.  
Her Body is my Soul; laugh not at this,  
For by my life I swear it is.  
'Tis that preserves my Being and my Breath,  
From that proceeds all that I do,  
Nay all my thoughts and speeches too,  
And separation from it is my Death.    

Echo.  

1.  
Tired with the rough denials of my prayer,  
From that hard she whom I obey,  
I come in and find a Nymph much gentler here,  
That gives consent to all I say.  
Ah gentle Nymph, who lik'st so well,  
In hollow, solitary Caves to dwell.  
Her Heart being such, into it go,  
And do but once from thence answer me so.   

2.  
Complaisant Nymph, who dost thus kindly share,  
In griefs whose cause thou dost not know!  
Hadst thou but Eyes, as well as Tongue and Ear,  
How much compassion wouldst thou show!  
Thy flame, whilst living, or a flower,  
Was of less beauty, and less ravishing power;  
Alas I might as easily,  
Paint thee to her, as describe Her to Thee.   

3.  
By repercussion Beams engender Fire,  
Shapes by reflection shapes beget,  
The voice itself, when stopped, does back retire  
And a new voice is made by it.  
Thus things by opposition  
The gainers grow; my barren Love alone,  
Does from her stony breast rebound  
Producing neither Image, Fire, nor Sound.    

The rich Rival.  

1.  
THey say you're angry and rant mightily,  
Because I love the same as you;  
Alas! you're very rich, 'tis true;  
But prithee Fool what's that to Love, and Me?  
You have Land and Money, let that serve,  
And know you have more by that than you deserve.   

2.  
When next I see my fair One, we shall know,  
How worthless thou art of her bed?  
And wretch, I'll strike thee dumb and dead;  
With noble verse not understood by you;  
Whilst thy sole Rhetoric shall be  
Jointure, and Jewels, and Our Friends agree.   

3.  
Pox o'your friends that dote and Domineer:  
Lovers are better friends they they:  
Let's those in other things obey,  
The Fates, and Stars, and Gods must govern here.  
Vain names of Blood! in Love let none  
Advise with any Blood, but with their own.   

4.  
'Tis that which bids me this bright Maid adore;  
No other thought has had access!  
Did she now beg I'd love do less,  
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!    

Against Hope.  

1.  
HOpe whose weak Being ruined is,  
Alike if it succeed, and if it miss;  
Whom Good, or Ill does equally confound,  
And both the Horns of Fates Dilemma wound!  
Vain shadow, which dost vanish quite  
Both at full Noon, and perfect Night!  
The Stars have not a possibility  
Of blessing Thee;  
If things then from their End we happy call,  
'Tis Hope is the most hopeless thing of all;   

2.  
Hope thou bold Taster of Delight,  
Who whilst thou shouldst but taste, devour'st it quite!  
Thou bringst us an Estate, yet leav'st us Poor,  
By clogging it with Legacies before!  
The Joys which we entire should wed,  
Come deflowered Virgins to our bed;  
Good fortunes without gain imported be,  
Such mighty Customs paid to Thee.  
For Joy, like Wine, kept close, does better taste,  
If it take air, before his spirits waste.   

3.  
Hope, Fortunes cheating Lottery!  
Where for one prise 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 guilt 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.   

4.  
Brother of Fear, more gaily clad!  
The mer'rier Fool o'th' two, yet quite as mad:  
Sire of Repentance, Child of fond Desire!  
That blows the Chemics, and the Lover's fire!  
Leading them still in sensibly on  
By the strong witchcraft of Anon!  
By Thee the one does changing Nature through  
Her endless Labyrinths pursue,  
And th'other chaces Woman, whilst She goes  
More ways and turns then hunted Nature knows.    

For Hope.  

1.  
HOpe, of all Ills that men endure,  
The only cheap and universal Cure!  
Thou Captiv's Freedom, and thou sick-man's Health!  
Thou Losers Victory, and thou Beggars wealth!  
Thou Manna, which from Heaven we eat,  
To every taste a several Meat!  
Thou strong Retreat! thou sure entailed Estate,  
Which nought has power to alienate!  
Thou pleasant, honest, Flatterer! for none  
Flatter unhappy Men, but thou alone!   

2.  
Hope, thou first Fruits of Happiness!  
Thou gentle Downing of a bright Success!  
Thou good Preparative, without which our Joy  
Does work too strong, and whilst it cures, destroy;  
Who out of Fortune's reach dost stand  
And art a blessing still in hand!  
Whilst Thee, her Earnest Money we retain,  
We certain are to gain,  
Whether she her bargain break, or else fulfil  
Thou only good, not worse for ending ill!  
Brother of Faith, 'twixt whom and Thee  
The joys of Heaven and Earth divided be!  
Though Faith be Heir, and have the fixed estate,  
Thy Portion yet in Movables is great.  
Happiness it selfe's all one  
In Thee, or in Possession!  
Only the Future's Thine, the Present His!  
Thine's the more hard and noble bliss,  
Best apprehender of our joys, which hast  
So long a reach, and yet canst hold so fast!   

4.  
Hope thou sad Lovers only Friend!  
Thou Way that mayst dispute it with the End!  
For Love I fear's a fruit that does delight  
The taste itself less than the Smell and sight.  
Fruition more deceitful is  
Then 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 travail out.    

Love's Ingratitude.  

1.  
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 ere have grown,  
So false or strong to make it all thine own.   

2.  
At mine own breast with care I fed thee still,  
Letting thee suck thy fill,  
And daintily I nourished Thee  
With Idle thoughts and Poetry!  
What ill returns dost thou allow?  
I fed thee then, and thou dost starve me now.   

3.  
There was a time when thou wast cold and i'll,  
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 that made it warm.   

4.  
What cursed weed's this Love! but one grain sow  
And the whole field 'twill overgrow;  
Straight will it choke up and devour  
Each wholesome herb and beauteous flower!  
Nay unless something soon I do,  
'Twill kill I fear, my very Laurel too.   

5.  
But now all's gone, I now, alas, complain,  
Declare, protest, and threat in vain.  
Since by my own unforced consent  
The Traitor has my Government,  
And is so settled in the Throne,  
That 'twere Rebellion now to claim mine own.    

The Frailty.  

1.  
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.   

2.  
In vain, exceedingly in vain  
I rage's sometimes, and bite my Chain;  
For 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?   

3.  
As when the Sun appears,  
The Morning Thickness clears;  
So, when my thoughts let sadness in,  
And a new Morning does begin,  
If any Beauty's piercing ray  
Strike through my Trembling Eyes a sudden day;  
All those grave sullen Vapours melt in Tears.    

Coldness.  

1.  
AS water fluid is, till it do grow  
Solid and fixed 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.   

2.  
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.   

3.  
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.    

The Enjoyment.  

1.  
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.   

2.  
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 nor low can prove,  
Whilst thy unwasted Fountain feeds my Love.   

3.  
Such Heat and Vigour shall our Kisses bear,  
As if like Doves wee'engendred 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 trough, I'll kiss thy very Soul.   

4.  
Yet nothing but the Night our sports shall know;  
Night that's both blind and silent too.  
Alpheus found not a more secret trace—  
His loved Sicanian Fountain to embrace,  
Creeping beneath the Aegaean Sea,  
Then I will do t'enjoy, and feast on Thee.   

5.  
Men, out of Wisdom, Women, out of Pride,  
The pleasant Thefts of Love do hide.  
That may secure thee, but thou hast yet from Me  
A more infallible Security.  
For there's no danger I should tell  
The Joys, which are to me unspeakable.    

Sleep.  

1.  
IN vain, thou drowsy God, I thee invoke;  
For thou who dost from fumes arise,  
Thou who Man's Soul dost over-shade  
With a thick Cloud, by Vapours made,  
Canst have no power to shut his eyes,  
Or passage of his Spirits to choke,  
Whose flams so pure that it sends up no smoke.   

2.  
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 within the Head appear,  
But all my too much Moisture owe  
To overflowings of the Heart below.   

3.  
Thou who dost Men (as Nights to Colours do)  
Bring all to an Equality:  
Come thou just God, and equal me  
A while to my disdainful Shee;  
In that condition let me lie;  
Till Love does the same favour show;  
Love equals all a better way than You.   

4.  
Then never more shalt thou be invoked by me;  
Watchful as Spirits, and Gods I'll prove:  
Let her but grant, and then will I  
Thee and thy Kinsman Death defy.  
For betwixt Thee and them that love,  
Never will an agreement be;  
Thou scornest the Unhappy, and the Happy Thee.    

Beauty.  

1.  
BEauty thou wild fantastic Ape,  
Who dost in every Country change thy shape!  
Here black, there brown, here tawny, and there white;  
Thou flatterer which complyest with every sight!  
Thou Babel, which confounds the Eye,  
With unintelligible variety!  
Who hast no certain when, nor where,  
But vary'st still, and dost thyself declare  
Inconstant, as thy she-Possessours are.   

2.  
Beauty Loves Scene and Maskerade,  
So gay by well-placed Lights, and Distance made!  
False Coin, with which th'Imposture cheats us still;  
The stamp and Colour good, but Mettle ill!  
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 choose t'enjoy Thee, when Thou least art Thou.   

3.  
Beauty, Thou Active, Passive Ill!  
Which diest thyself as fast as thou dost kill!  
Thou Tulip, who thy stock in paint dost waste,  
Neither for Physic good, nor Smell, nor Tast.  
Beauty whose Flames but Meteors are,  
Short-lived and low, though thou wouldst seem a Star,  
Who dar'st not thine own Home descry,  
Pretending to dwell richly in the Eye,  
When thou, alas, dost in the Fancy lie.   

4.  
Beauty, whose Conquests still are made  
O'er Hearts by Cowards kept, or else betrayed!  
Weak Victor! who thyself destroyed must be  
When sickness storms, or Time besieges Thee!  
Thou'unwholsome Thaw to frozen Age?  
Thou strong Wine, which youths Fever dost enrage,  
Thou Tyrant which leav'st no man free!  
Thou subtle thief, from whom none safe can be!  
Thou Murderer which hast killed, and Devil which wouldst Damn me.    

The Parting.  

1.  
AS Men in Groenland left beheld the Sun  
From their Horizon run;  
And thought upon the sad half year  
Of Cold and Darkness they must suffer there.   

2.  
So on my parting Mistress did I look,  
With such swollen eyes my farewell took;  
Ah, my fair Star, said I,  
Ah those blessed Lands to which bright Thou dost fly?   

3.  
In vain the Men of Learning comfort me;  
And say I'm in a warm degree;  
Say what they please; I say and swear  
'Tis be yond eighty at least, if you're not here.   

4.  
It is, it is; I tremble with the Frost,  
And know that I the Day have lost;  
And those wild things which Men they call,  
I find to be but Bears and Foxes all.   

5.  
Return, return, gay Planet of the East,  
Of all that shines Thou much the best!  
And as thou now descends to Sea;  
More fair and fresh rise up from thence to Me.   

6.  
Thou, who in many a Prop'riety  
So truly art the Sun to Me,  
Add one more likeness, which I'm sure you can,  
And let Me and my Sun beget a Man.    

My Picture.  

1.  
HEre, take my likeness with you, whilst 'tis so;  
For when from hence you go,  
The next Suns rising will behold  
Me pale, and lean, and old.  
The Man, who did this Picture draw,  
Will swear next day my face he never saw   

2.  
I really believe, within a while,  
If you upon this shadow smile,  
Your presence will such vigour give,  
(Your presence which makes all things live)  
And absence so much alter Me,  
This will the substance, I the shadow be.   

3.  
When from your well-wrought Cabinet you take it,  
And your bright looks awake it;  
Ah be not frighted, if you see  
The new sold Picture gaze on Thee,  
And hear it breathe a sigh or two;  
For those are the first things that it will do.   

4.  
My Rival Image will be then thought blest,  
And laugh at me as dispossessed:  
But Thou, who (if I know thee right)  
I'th' substance doth not much delight,  
Will't rather send again for Me,  
Who then shalt but my Pictures Picture be.    

The Concealment.  

1.  
NO; to what purpose should I speak?  
No wretched Heart, swell till you break!  
She cannot love me if She would;  
And to say truth, 'twere pity that she should.  
No, to the Grave thy sorrows bear,  
As silent as they will be there:  
Since that loved hand this Mortal wound does give,  
So handsomely the thing contrive,  
That she may guiltless of it live.  
So perish, that her killing Thee  
May a chance Medley, and no Murder be.   

2.  
'Tis nobler much for me that I  
By'her Beauty, not her Anger die;  
This will look justly, and become  
An Execution, that, a Martyrdom.  
The censuring World will ne'er refrain  
From judging men by Thunder slain.  
She must be angry sure, if I should be  
So bold to ask her to make me  
By being hers, happier than she  
I will not; 'tis a milder Fate  
To fall by her not Loving, than her Hate.  
And yet this death of mine, I fear,  
Will ominous to her appear:  
When, sound in every other part,  
Her Sacrifice is found without an Heart.  
For the last Tempest of my death  
Shall sigh out that too with my breath.  
Then shall the world my noble ruin see,  
Some pity, and some envy Me,  
Then She herself, the mighty She  
Shall grace my fun'ralls with this truth;  
'Twas only Love destroyed the gentle Youth.    

The Monopoly.  

1.  
WHat Mines of Sulphur in my breast do lie,  
That feed th'eternal burnings of my heart?  
Not Aetna flames more fierce or constantly,  
The sounding shop of Vulcan's smoky art;  
Vulcan his shop has placed there,  
And Cupid's Forge is set up here.   

2.  
Here all those Arrows mortal Heads are made,  
That fly so thick unseen through yielding air;  
The Cyclops here, which labour at the trade  
Are Jealousy, Fear, Sadness, and Despair.  
Ah cruel God and why to me  
Gave you this cursed Monopoly!   

3.  
I have the trouble not the gains of it;  
Give me but the disposal of one Dart;  
And then (I'll ask no other benefit)  
Heat as you please your furnace in my Heart.  
So sweet's Revenge to me, that I  
Upon my foe would gladly die.   

4.  
Deep into'her bosom would I strike the dart;  
Deeper than Woman ere was struck by Thee;  
Thou giv'st them small wounds, & so far from th'Heart,  
They flutter still about inconstantly.  
Curse on thy Goodness, whom we find  
Civil to none but Womankind!   

5.  
Vain God who women dost thyself adore!  
Their wounded Hearts do still retain the powers  
To travail and to wander as before;  
Thy broken Arrows 'twixt that Sex and ours  
So'unjustly are distributed;  
They take their Feathers, we the Head.    

The distance.  

1.  
I'Have followed thee a year at least,  
And never stopped myself to rest.  
But yet can thee o'ertake no more,  
Then this Day can the Day that went before.   

2.  
In this our fortunes equal prove  
To Stars which govern them above;  
Our Stars that move for ever round  
With the same Distance still betwixt them found.   

3.  
In vain, alas, in vain I strive  
The wheel of Fate faster to drive;  
Since if round swiftlier it fly,  
She in it mends her pace as much as I   

4.  
Hearts by Love strangely shuffled are,  
That there can never meet a Pare!  
Tamelier than Worms are Lovers slain;  
The wounded Heart ne'er turns to wound again.    

The Increase.  

1.  
I Thought I'll swear I could have loved no more  
Than I had done before;  
But you as easily might account  
Till to the top of numbers you amount,  
As cast up my Love's score.  
Ten thousand millions was the sum;  
Millions of endless Millions are to come.   

2.  
I'm sure her Beauties cannot greater grow;  
Why should my Love do so?  
A real cause at first did move;  
But mine own Fancy now drives on my Love,  
With shadows from itself that flow.  
My Love, as we in Numbers see,  
By Ciphers is increased eternally.   

3.  
So the new made, and untride Spheres above  
Took their first turn from th'hand of Jove;  
But are since that beginning found  
By their own Forms to turn for ever round.  
All violent Motions short do prove,  
But by the length 'tis plain to see  
That Love's a Motion Natural to Me.    

Love's Visibility.  

1.  
WIth much of pain, and all the Art I knew  
Have I endeavoured hitherto  
To hide my Love, and yet all will not do.   

2.  
The world perceives it, and, it may be, she;  
Though so discreet and good she be,  
By hiding it, to teach that skill to Me.   

3.  
Men without Love have so oft cunning grown,  
That something like it they have shown,  
But none that had it ever seemed to have none.   

4.  
Loves of a strangely open, simple kind,  
Can no arts or disguises find,  
But thinks none sees it, cause itself is blind.   

5.  
The very Eye betrays our inward smart;  
Love of himself left there a part,  
When through it he passed into the Heart.   

6.  
Or if by chance the face betray not it,  
But keep the secret wisely, yet,  
Like Drunkenness, into the Tongue 'twill get.    

Looking on, and discoursing with his Mistress.  

1.  
THese full two hours now have I gazing been,  
What comfort by it can I gain?  
To look on Heaven with mighty Gulfs between  
Was the great Miser's greatest pain:  
So near was he to Heaven's delight,  
As with the blessed converse he might,  
Yet could not get one drop of water by't.   

2.  
Ah wretch: I seem to touch her now, but, oh,  
What boundless spaces do us part?  
Fortune, and Friends, and all earth's empty show,  
My Lowness, and her high Desert:  
But these might conquerable prove:  
Nothing does me so far remove,  
As her hard Souls aversion from my Love.   

3.  
So Travellers that lose their way by Night,  
If from a far they chance t'spy  
Th'uncertain glimmerings of a Tapers light,  
Take flatterring hopes and think it nigh;  
Till wearied with the fruitless pain,  
They sit them down, and weep in vain,  
And there in Darkness and Despair remain.    

Resolved to Love.  

1.  
I Wonder what the Grave and Wise  
Think of all us that Love;  
Whether our pretty Fooleries  
Their Mirth or Anger move;  
They understand not Breath, that Words do want;  
Our Sighs to them are unsignificant.   

2.  
One of them saw me th'other day,  
Touch the dear hand which I admire;  
My Soul was melting straight away,  
And dropped before the Fire.  
This silly Wiseman, who pretends to know,  
Asked why I looked so pale, and trembled so?   

3.  
Another from my Mistress 'dore▪  
Saw me with eyes all watery come;  
Nor could the hidden cause explore,  
But thought some smoke was in the room;  
Such Ignorance from unwounded Learning Game;  
He knew Tears made by Smoak, but not by Flame.   

4.  
If learned in other things you be,  
And have in Love no skill,  
For God's sake keep your arts from me,  
For I'll be ignorant still.  
Study or Action others may embrace;  
My Love's my Business, and my Books her Face.   

5.  
These are but trifles I confess,  
Which me, weak Mortal, move;  
Nor is your busy Seriousness  
Less trifling than my Love.  
The wisest King who from his sacred breast  
Pronounced all Vanity, chose it for the best.    

My Fate.  

1.  
GO bid the Needle his dear North forsake,  
To which with trembling reve'rence it does bend;  
Go bid the Stones a journey upward make;  
Go bid th'ambitious Flame no more t'ascend:  
And when these false to their old Motions prove,  
Then shall I cease Thee, thou alone to Love.   

2.  
The fast-linked Chain of everlasting Fate  
Does nothing tie more strong, then Me to You;  
My fixed Love hangs not on your Love or Hate;  
But will be still the same, what ere you do.  
You cannot kill my Love with your disdain,  
Wound it you may, and make it live in pain.   

3.  
Me, mine examples let the Stoics use,  
Their sad and cruel doctrine to maintain,  
Let all Predestinators me produce,  
Who struggle with eternal bonds in vain.  
This Fire I'm born to, but 'tis she must tell,  
Whether't be beams of Heaven, or Flames of Hell.   

4.  
You who men's fortunes in their faces read,  
To find out mine, look not, alas, on Me;  
But mark her Face, and all the Features heed;  
For only there is writ my Destiny.  
Or if Stars show it, gaze not on the skies:  
But study the Astrol'ogy of her Eyes.   

5.  
If thou find there kind and propitious ways,  
What Mars or Saturn threaten I'll not fear;  
I well believe the Fate of mortal days  
Is writ in Heaven; but, oh, my Heaven is there.  
What can men learn from Stars, they scarce can see?  
Two great Lights rule the World, and her two, Me.    

The Heart-breaking.  

1.  
IT gave a piteous groan, and so it broke;  
In vain it something would have spoke:  
The Love within too strong fort was,  
Like Poison put into a Venice Glass.   

2.  
I thought that this some Remedy might prove,  
But, oh, the mighty Serpent Love,  
Cut by this chance in pieces small,  
In all still lived, and still it stung in all.   

3.  
And now (alas) each little broken part  
Feels the whole pain of all my Heart:  
And every smallest corner still  
Lives with that torment which the Whole did kill.   

4.  
Even so rude Armies when the field they quit,  
And into several Quarters get;  
Each Troop does spoil and ruin more,  
Then all joined in one body did before.   

5.  
How many Love's reign in my bosom now?  
How many Loves, yet all of you?  
Thus have I changed with evil fate  
My Monarch Love, into a Tyrant State.    

The Usurpation.  

1.  
THou'hadst to my Soul no title or pretence;  
I was mine own and free,  
Till I had given myself to Thee;  
But thou hast me Slave and Prisoner since.  
Well, since so insolent thou'rt grown,  
Fond Tyrant, I'll depose thee from thy Throne;  
Such outrages must not admitted be  
In an Elective Monarchy.   

2.  
Part of my Heart by Gift did to Thee fall;  
My Country, Kindred, and my best  
Acquaintance were to share the rest;  
But thou, their Covetous Neighbour, drav'st out all:  
Nay more, thou mak'st me worship Thee,  
And wouldst the rule of my Religion be:  
Was ever Tyrant claimed such power as you,  
To be both Emperor, and Pope too?   

3.  
The public Mise'ries, and my private fate  
Deserve some tears: but greedy Thou  
Insatiate Maid!) wilt not allow  
That I one drop from thee should alienate.  
Nor wilt thou grant my sins a part,  
Though the sole cause of most of them thou art,  
Counting my Tears thy Tribute and thy Due,  
Since first mine Eyes I gave to You   

4.  
Thou all my Joys, and all my Hopes dost claim,  
Thou ragest like a Fire in me,  
Converting all things into Thee;  
Nought can resist, or not increase the Flame.  
Nay every Grief, and every Fear  
Thou dost devour, unless thy stamp it bear.  
Thy presence like the crowned Basilisks breath,  
All other Serpents puts to death.   

5.  
As men in Hell are from Diseases free,  
So from all other ills am I;  
Free from their known Formality.  
But all pains eminently lie in Thee.  
Alas, alas, I hope in vain  
My conquered Soul from out thine hands to gain,  
Since all the Natives there thou'st overthrown,  
And planted Garrisons of thine own.    

Maidenhead.  

1.  
THou worst Estate even of the sex that's worst;  
Therefore by Nature made at first,  
T'attend the weakness of our birth!  
'Slight, outward Curtain to the Nuptial Bed!  
Thou Case to buildings not yet finished▪  
Who like the Centre of the Earth,  
Dost heaviest things attract to thee,  
Though Thou a point imaginary be.   

2.  
A thing God thought for Mankind so unfit,  
That his first blessing ruin'd it.  
Cold frozen Nurse of fiercest fires!  
Who, like the parched plains of Africks' sand,  
(A sterile, and a wild unlovely Land)  
Art always scorched with hot desires,  
Yet barren quite didst thou not bring  
Monsters and Serpents forth thyself to sting!   

3.  
Thou that bewitchest men, whilst thou dost dwell  
Like a close Conj'urer in his Cell!  
And fearest the days discovering Eye!  
No wonder 'tis at all that thou shouldst be  
Such tedious and unpleasant company,  
Who liv'st so Melancholy!  
Thou thing of subtle, slippery kind,  
Which Women lose, and yet no Man can find!   

4.  
Although I think thou never found wilt be,  
Yet I'm resolved to search for thee;  
The search itself rewards the pains,  
So, though the Chemic his great secret miss,  
(For neither it in Art nor Nature is)  
Yet things well worth his toil he gains:  
And does his Charge and Labour richly pay  
With good unsought exper'iments by the way.   

5.  
Say what thou wilt, Chastity is no more,  
thou, than a Porter is his Dore.  
In vain to honour they pretend  
Who guard themselves with Ramparts and with Walls,  
Them only Fame the truly valiant calls  
Who can an open breach depend.  
Of thy quick loss can be no doubt,  
Within so Hated, and so Loved without.    

Impossibilities.  

1.  
IMpossibilities? oh no, there's none;  
Could mine bring thy Heart Captive home;  
As easily other dangers were o'erthrown,  
As Cesar after vanquished Rome,  
His little Asian foes did overcome.   

2.  
True Lovers oft by Fortune are envied,  
Oft Earth and Hell against them strive;  
But Providence engages on their side,  
And a good end at last does give;  
At last Just Men and Lovers always thrive.   

3.  
As stars (not powerful else) when they conjoin,  
Change, as they please, the World's estate;  
So thy Heart in Conjunction with mine  
Shall our own fortunes regulate;  
And to the Stars themselves prescribe a Fate.   

4.  
'Twould grieve me much to find some bold Romance  
That should too kind examples show,  
Which before us in wonders did advance;  
Not, that I thought that story true,  
But none should Fancy more, than I would Do.   

5.  
Through spite of our worst Enemies, thy Friends,  
Through Local Banishment from me;  
Through the loud thoughts of selfe-concerning Ends,  
As easy shall my passage be,  
As was the Am'orous Youth's o'er Helles Sea.   

6.  
In vain the Winds, in vain the Billows roar;  
In vain the Stars their aid denied:  
He saw the Sestian Tower on th'other shore;  
Shall th'Hellespont our Loves divide?  
No, not th'atlantic Ocean's bound less Tide.   

7.  
Such Seas betwixt us easily conquered are;  
But, gentle Maid, do not deny  
To let thy Beams shine on me from afar;  
And still that Taper let me ' espy:  
For when thy Light goes out, I sink, and die.    

Silence.  

1.  
CUrse on this Tongue that has my Heart betrayed,  
And his great Secret open laid!  
For of all persons chiefly She,  
Should not the ills I suffer know;  
Since ' does a thing might dangerous grow,  
Only in her to Pity Me:  
Since 'tis for Me to lose my Life more fit,  
Then 'tis for her to save and ransom it.   

2.  
Ah never more shall thy unwilling ear,  
My helpless story hear.  
Discourse and talk away does keep  
The rude unquiet pain,  
That in my Breast does reign;  
Silence perhaps may make it sleep.  
I'll bind that Sore up, I did ill reveal;  
The Wound if once it Close, may chance to Heal.   

3.  
No, 'twill ne'er heal; my Love will never die,  
Though it should Speechless lie.  
A River ere it meet the Sea,  
As well might stay its source,  
As my Love can his course,  
Unless it join and mix with Thee.  
If any end or stop of it be found,  
We know the Flood runs still, though underground.    

The Dissembler.  

1.  
UNhurt, untouched did I complain;  
And terrified all others with the pain:  
But now I feel the mighty evil;  
Ah, there's no fooling with the Devil!  
So wanton men, whilst others they would fright,  
Themselves have met a real Spirit.   

2.  
I thought, I'll swear, an handsomely  
Had been no sin at all in Poetry:  
But now I suffer an Arrest  
For words were spoke by me in jest.  
Dull, sottish God of Love, and can it be  
Thou understand'st not Raillery?   

3.  
Darts, and Wounds, and Flame, and Heat,  
I named but for the Rhyme, or the Conceit.  
Nor meant my verse should raised be  
To this sad fame of Prophecy;  
Truth gives a Dull Propriety to my stile,  
And all the Metaphors does spoil.   

4.  
In things, where Fancy much does reign,  
'tis dangerous too cunningly to feign.  
The Play at last a Truth does grow,  
And Custom into Nature go.  
By this cursed art of begging I became  
Lame with counterfeiting Lame.   

5.  
My Lines of amorous desire  
I wrote to kindle and blow others fire:  
And 'twas a barbarous delight  
My Fancy promiseed from the sight;  
But now, by Love, the mighty Phalaris, I  
My burning Bull the first do try.    

The Inconstant.  

1.  
I Never yet could see that face  
Which had no dart for me;  
From fifteen years to fifties space  
They all victorious be.  
Love thou'rt a Dev'ill; if I may call thee One,  
For sure in Me thy name is Legion.   

2.  
Colour, or Shape, good Limbs, or Fate,  
Goodness or Wit in all I find.  
In Motion or in Speech a grace,  
If all fail, yet 'tis Womankind;  
And I'm so weak, the Pistol need not be  
Double or triple charged to murder Me.   

3.  
If Tall, the Name of Proper slays;  
If fair, she's pleasant as the Light;  
If Low, her Prettiness does please;  
If Black, what Lover loves not Night?  
If yellow haired, I Love, lest it should be  
Th' excuse to others for not loving Me.   

4.  
The Fat, like Plenty, fills my heart;  
The Lean, with Love makes me too so,  
If Straight, her body's Cupid's Dart  
To me, if Crooked, 'tis his Bow.  
Nay Age itself does me to rage incline,  
And strength to Women gives, as well as Wine.   

5.  
Just half as large as Charity  
My richly-landed Love's become;  
And judged aright is Constancy,  
Though it take up a larger room:  
Him, who loves always one, why should they call  
More Constant, than the Man loves Always All?   

6.  
Thus with unwearied wings I flee  
Through all Love's Gardens and his Fields;  
And, like the wise industrious Bee,  
No Weed, but Honey to me yields!  
Honey still spent this diligence still supplies,  
Though I return not home with laden Thighs.   

7.  
My Soul at first instead did prove  
Of pretty strength against a Dart,  
Till I this Habit got of Love;  
But my consumed and wasted Heart  
Once burnt to Tinder with a strong Desire,  
Since that by every Spark is set on Fire.    

The Constant.  

1.  
GReat, and wise Conqueror, who where ere  
Thou comest, dost fortify, and settle there!  
Who caused defend as well as get;  
And never hadst one Quarter beat up yet;  
Now thou art in, Thou ne'er wilt part  
With one inch of my vanquished Heart:  
For since thou took'st it by assault from Me,  
'Tis garrisoned so strong with thoughts of Thee,  
It fears no beauteous Enemy.   

2.  
Had thy charming strength been less,  
I'had served ere this an hundred Mistresses.  
I'm better thus, and would compound  
To leave my Pris'on to be a Vagabound.  
A Pris'on in which I still would be,  
Though every door stood open to Me,  
In spite both of thy Coldness and thy Pride,  
All Love is Marriage on thy Lover's side,  
For only Death can them divide.   

3.  
Close Narrow Chain, yet soft and kind,  
As that which Spir'its above to good does bind!  
Gentle and sweet Necessity,  
Which does not force, but guide our Liberty!  
Your Love on Me were spent in vain,  
Since my Love still could but remain  
Just, as it is; for what alas can be  
Added to that which hath infinity  
Both in Extent and Quality.    

Her Name.  

1.  
WIth more than jewish Reverence as yet  
Do I the Sacred Name conceal;  
When, ye kind Stars, ah when will it be fit  
His Gentle Myst'ery to reveal?  
When will our Love be Named, and we possess  
That Christening as a Badge of Happiness?   

2.  
So bold as yet no verse of mine has been  
To wear that Gem on any Line;  
Nor, till the happy Nuptial Muse be seen,  
Shall any Stanza with it shine.  
Rest mighty Name, till then; for thou must be  
Laid down: by her, e'er taken up by Me.   

3.  
Then all the fields and woods shall with it ring;  
Then Echoes burden it shall be;  
Then all the Birds in several notes shall sing,  
And all the Rivers murmur Thee;  
Then ever'y wind the Sound shall upwards bear,  
And softly whisper't to some Angels Eare.   

4.  
Then shall thy Name through all my Verse be spread,  
Thick as the flowers in Meadowsly,  
And, when in future times they shall be read,  
(As sure, I think, they will not die)  
If any Critic doubt that they be mine,  
Men by that Stamp shall quickly know the Coin.   

5.  
Mean while I will not dare to make a Name  
To represent thee by,  
Adam (God's Nomenclator) could not frame  
One that enough should signify.  
Astraea'or Caelia as unfit would prove  
For Thee, as 'tis to call the Di'ety Jove.    

Weeping.  

1.  
SEe where she sits, and in what comely wise  
Drops Tears more fair than others Eyes:  
Ah, charming Maid, let not ill Fortune see  
Th' attire thy sorrow wears,  
Nor know the beauty of thy Tears;  
For she'll still come to dress herself in Thee.   

2.  
As stars reflect on waters, so I soye  
In every drop (me thinks her Eye.  
The Baby, which lies there, and always plays  
In that illustrious sphere,  
Like a Narcissus does appear,  
Whilst in his flood the lovely Boy did gaze.   

3.  
Near yet did I behold so glorious weather,  
As this Sunshine and Rain together.  
Pray Heaven her Forehead, that pure Hill of Snow  
(For some such Fountain we must find  
To waters of so fair a kind)  
Melt not, to feed that beauteous stream below.   

4.  
Ah, mighty Love, that it were inward Heat  
Which made this precious Lymbeck sweat!  
But what, alas, ah what does it avail  
That she weeps Tears so wondrous cold  
As scarce the Ass' hoof can hold,  
So cold, that I admire they fall not Hail.    

Discretion.  

1.  
DIscreet? what means this word Discreet?  
A Curse on all Discretion!  
This barbarous term you will not meet  
In all Loves Lexicon.   

2.  
Jointure, Portion, Gold, Estate,  
Houses, Householdstuff, or Land,  
(The Low Conveniences of Fate)  
Are Greek no Lovers understand.   

3.  
Believe me, beauteous one, when Love  
Enters into a breast,  
The two first things it doth remove,  
Are Friends and Interest.   

4.  
Passion's half blind, nor can endure  
The careful, scrup'lous Eyes,  
Or else I could not love, I'm sure▪  
One who in Love were wise.   

5.  
Men, in such tempests tossed about,  
Will without grief or pain,  
Cast all their goods and riches out,  
Themselves their Port to gain.   

6.  
As well might Martyrs, who do choose  
That sacred Death to take,  
More for the Clothes, which they must lose,  
When they're bound naked to the Stake.    

The Wayting-Maide. (Suspected to Love her.)  

1.  
THy Maid? ah, find some nobler theme  
Whereon thy doubts to place;  
Nor by a low suspect blaspheme  
The glories of thy face.   

2.  
Alas, she makes Thee shine so fair,  
So tightly bright,  
That her dim Lamp must disappear  
Before thy potent Light.   

3.  
Three hours each morn in dressing Thee  
Maliciously are spent;  
And make that Beauty Tyranny,  
That's else a Civil Government.   

4.  
The'adorning thee with so much art  
Is but a barb'arous skill;  
'Tis like the poisoning of a Dart  
Too apt before to kill.   

5.  
The Min'istring Angels none can see;  
'Tis not their beauty ' or face,  
For which by men thy worshipped be;  
But their high office and their place▪  
Thou art my Goddess, my Saint, She;  
I pray to Her, only to pray to Thee.    

Council.  

1.  
AH! what advice can I receive?  
No, satisfy me first;  
For who would Physic potions give  
To one that dies with Thirst?   

2.  
A little puff of breath we find  
Small fires can quench and kill,  
But when they're great, the adverse wind,  
Does make them greater still.   

3.  
Now whilst you speak, it moves me much;  
But straight I'm just the same;  
Alas th'effect must needs be such  
Of Cutting through a Flame.    

The Cure.  

1.  
COme, Doctor, use thy roughest art  
Thou canst not cruel prove;  
Cut, burn, and Torture every part,  
To heal me of my Love.   

2.  
There is no danger if the pain  
Should me to a Fever bring;  
Compared with Heats I now sustain,  
A fever is so Cool a thing,  
(Like drink which feverish men desire)  
That I should hope 'twould almost quench my Fire.    

The separation.  

1.  
Ask me not what my Love shall do or be  
(Love which is Soul to Body, and Soul of Me)  
When I am sepa'rated from thee;  
Alas I might as easily show,  
What after Death the Soul will do;  
'Twill last, I'm sure, and that is all we know.   

2.  
The thing called soul will never stir nor move,  
But all that while a liveless Carcase prove,  
For 'tis the Body of my Love;  
Not that my Love will fly away,  
But still continue, as, they say,  
Sad troubled Ghosts about their Graves do stray.    

The Tree.  

1.  
I Close the flour'ishingst Tree in all the Park,  
With freshest Boughs and fairest head;  
I cut my Love into his gentle Bark,  
And in three days, behold, 'tis dead?  
My very written Flames so vi'olent be,  
They'have burnt and withereed up the Tree.   

2:  
How should I live myself, whose Heart is found,  
Deeply graven every where  
With the large History of many a wound,  
Larger than thy Trunk can bear?  
With art as strange, as Homer in the Nut,  
Love in my Heart has Volumes put.   

3.  
What a few words from thy rich stock did take  
The Leaves and Beauties all?  
As a strong Poison with one drop does make  
The Nails and Hairs to fall:  
Love (I see now) a kind of Witchcraft is,  
For Characters could ne'er do this.   

4.  
Pardon ye Birds and Nymphs who loved this Shade;  
And pardon me, thou gentle Tree;  
I thought her name would thee have happy made,  
And blessed Omens hoped from Thee;  
Notes of my Love, thrive here (said I) and grow;  
And with ye let my Love do so.   

5.  
Alas poor youth, thy love will never thrive!  
This blasted Tree predestines it;  
Go tie the dismal Knot (why shouldst thou live?  
And by the Lines thou there hast writ  
Deform'dly hanging, the sad Picture be  
To that unlucky History.    

Her Unbelief.  

1.  
'tIs a strange kind of Ignorance this in you!  
That you your Victories should not spy,  
Victories gotten by your Eye!  
That your bright beams, as those of Comets do,  
Should kill, but not know How, nor Who.   

2.  
That truly you my Idol might appear,  
Whilst all the People smell and see  
The odorous flames, I offer thee,  
Thou sittest, and dost not see, nor smell, nor hear  
Thy constant zealous worshipper.   

3.  
They see't too well who at my fires repine;  
Nay th' unconcerned themselves do prove  
Quick-eyed enough to spy my Love;  
Nor does the Cause in thy Face clearelier shine,  
Then the Effect appears in mine.   

4.  
Fair Infidel! by what unjust decree  
Must I, who with such restless care  
Would make this truth to thee appear,  
Must I, who preach it, and pray for it, be  
Damned by thy incredulity?   

2.  
I by thy Unbelief am guiltless slain;  
Oh have but Faith, and then that you  
May know that Faith for to be true,  
It shall itself by'a Miracle maintain,  
And raise me from the Dead again.   

3.  
Mean while my Hopes may seem to be o'erthrown▪  
But Lovers Hopes are full of Art,  
And thus dispute, that since my Heart  
Though in thy Breast, yet is not by thee known,  
Perhaps thou may'st not know thine Own.    

Love given over.  

1.  
IT is enough; enough of time, and pain  
Hast thou consumed in vain;  
Leave, wretched Cowley, leave  
Thyself with shadows to deceive;  
Think that already lost which thou must never gain.   

2.  
Three of thy lustiest and freshest years,  
(Post in storms of Hopes and Fears)  
Like helpless Ships that be  
Set on fire i'th' midst o'the Sea,  
Have all been burnt in Love, & all been drowned in Tears.   

1.  
Resolve then on it, and by force or art  
Free thy unlucky Heart;  
Since Fate does disapprove  
Th' ambition of thy Love,  
And not one Star in heaven offers to take thy part.   

4.  
If ere I clear my Heart from this desire,  
If ere it home to'his breast retire,  
It ne'er shall wander more about,  
Though thousand beauties called it out:  
A Lover Burnt like me for ever dreads the fire.   

5.  
The Poet, the Plague, and every small disease,  
May come as oft as ill Fate please;  
But Death and Love are never found  
To give a Second Wound,  
we're by those Serpent's bit, but wee'redevoured by these.   

6.  
Alas, what comfort is't that I am grown▪  
Secure of being again o'erthrown;  
Since such an Enemy needs not fear  
Lest any else should quarter there,  
Who has not only Sacked, but quite burnt down the Town.     

TO THE READER.  
IN stead of the Author's Picture in the beginning, I thought sit to fix here this following Copy of Verses, being his own illustration of his Motto, and (as I conceive) the more lively representation of him.  

Tentanda vita est qua me quoque possim  
Tollere humo victorque virûm volitare per ora.   

WHat shall I do to be for ever known,  
And make the Age to come my own?  
I shall like Beasts or Common people die,  
Unless you write mine Elegy;  
While others great by being borne are grown;  
Their Mothers Labour not their own.  
In this Scale Gold, in th' other Fame does lie;  
The weight of that mounts this so high.  
These men are fortunes Jewels, moulded bright;  
Brought forth with their own fire and light.  
If I, her vulgar stone, for either look;  
Out of myself it must be struck.  
Yet I must on; what sound is't strikes mine ear?  
Sure ay Fame's Trumpet hear.  
It sounds like the last Trumpet; for it can  
Raise up the buried Man.  
Unpassed Alps stop me, but I'll cut through all;  
And march, the Muses Hannibal.  
Hence all ye flattering Vanities that lay  
Nets of Roses in the way.  
Hence the desire of Honours or Estates;  
And all, that is not above Fate.  
Hence Love himself, that Tyrant of my days,  
Which intercepts my coming Praise.  
Come my best Friends, my Books, and lead me on;  
'Tis time that I were gone.  
Welcome great Stagirite, and teach me now  
All I was borne to know.  
Thy Scholar's Vict'ories thou dost far outdo;  
He conquered th'earth, the whole World you.  
Welcome learned Cicero, whose blessed Tongue and Wit  
Preserves Rome's Greatness yet.  
Thou art the first of Or'atours, only he  
Who best can praise thee, next must be.  
Welcome the Mantuan Swan, Virgil the wise;  
Whose Verse walks highest, but not flies,  
Who brought green Po'esie to her perfect age;  
And mad'st that Art, which was a Rage.  
Tell me, ye mighty Three, what shall I do  
To be like one of you?  
But you have climbed the Mountain's top, there sit  
On the calm flourishing head of it,  
And whilst with wearied steps we upward go,  
See us, and Clouds below.   
FINIS.   

A Table of the Heads in this Poem.  
THe Request 
Pag. 1.  The Thraldom 
4  The Given Lover 
5  The Spring 
8  Written in juice of Lemon 
10  Inconnstant 
13  Not fair. 
41  Platonic Lover 
15  The Change 
16  Clad all in White 
19  Leaving Me, and then loving many 
19  My heart discovered 
20  Answer to the Plantonicks 
21  The vain Love 
22  The Soul 
23  The Passions 
26  Wisdom 
28  The Despair 
ibid.  The Wish 
30  My Diet 
32  The Thief 
33  All-over, Love 
34  Love and Life 
35  The Bargain 
37  The Long Life 
39  The Council 
40  Resolved to be beloved 
42  The Same 
43  The Discovery 
45  Against Fruition 
46  Love undiscovered 
47  The Given Heart 
48  The Prophet 
49  The Resolution 
51  Called Inconstant 
52  The Welcome 
53  The Heart fled again 
55  women's Superstition 
56  The Soul 
58  Echo 
59  The rich Rival 
60  Against Hope 
61  For Hope 
63  Love's Ingratitude 
65  The Frailty 
66  Coldness 
67  The enjoyment 
68  Sleep 
70  Beauty 
71  The Parting 
73  The Picture 
74  The Concealment 
76  The Monopoly 
77  The Distance 
79  The Increase 
80  Love's Visiblity 
81  Looking on, and discoursing with his Mistress 
82  Resolved to Love 
83  My Fate 
85  The Heart-breaking 
86  The Usurpation 
88  Maidenhead 
90  Impossibilities 
92  Silence 
94  The Dissembler 
95  The Inconstant 
96  The Constant 
98  The Name 
100  Weeping 
101  Discretion 
103  The Waiting-Maid 
104  Council 
106  The Cure 
107  The Separation 
ibid.  The Tree 
108  Her Unbelief 
110  Love given over 
113   
FINIS.