When, Dearest, I But Think of Thee" 579 And yet he shines as bright as you, 'Tis not the pretty things you say, Which can make Thyrsis' heart your prey: For that delight, The graces of a well-taught mind, In some of our own sex we find. No, Flavia, 'tis your love I fear; Those which so seldom fail him, are Their very shadows make us yield; Dissemble well, and win the field! Edmund Waller [1606-1687] "LOVE NOT ME FOR COMELY GRACE" LOVE not me for comely grace, For my pleasing eye or face; Nor for any outward part, No, nor for a constant heart: For these may fail or turn to ill, So thou and I shall sever. Keep, therefore, a true woman's eye, And love me still, but know not why; So hast thou the same reason still To doat upon me ever. Unknown "WHEN, DEAREST, I BUT THINK OF THEE" WHEN, dearest, I but think of thee, Methinks all things that lovely be For beauties that from worth arise Are like the grace of deities, Still present with us, though unsighted. Thus while I sit and sigh the day Till night's black wings do overtake me, So they by their bright rays awake me. Thus absence dies, and dying proves That do partake of fair perfection: The waving sea can with each flood As much! for that's an ocean too, Which flows not every day, but ever! John Suckling [1609-1642] A DOUBT OF MARTYRDOM O FOR Some honest lover's ghost, Sent from the shades below! For whatsoe'er they tell us here And have our loves enjoyed. To Chloe What posture can we think him in Departs, and's thither gone Where each sits by his own? For there the judges all are just, Be his whom she held dear, Not his who loved her here. The sweet Philoclea, since she died, Not by Amphialus. Some bays, perchance, or myrtle bough For difference crowns the brow Of those kind souls that were And if that be the only odds (As who can tell?), ye kinder gods, Give me the woman here! John Suckling [1609–1642] TO CHLOE WHO FOR HIS SAKE WISHED HERSELF YOUNGER CHLOE, why wish you that your years Would backwards run, till they met mine? That perfect likeness, which endears Things unto things, might us combine. Our ages so in date agree, That twins do differ more than we. There are two births; the one when light First strikes the new awakened sense; The other when two souls unite, And we must count our life from thence: 581 When you loved me and I loved you Love then to us new souls did give The breath we breathe is his, not ours: Love, like that angel that shall call Our bodies from the silent grave, Unto one age doth raise us all; None too much, none too little have; Nay, that the difference may be none, He makes two not alike, but one. And now since you and I are such, Tell me what's yours, and what is mine? Our eyes, our ears, our taste, smell, touch, Do, like our souls, in one combine; So, by this, I as well may be Too old for you, as you for me. William Cartwright [1611-1643] "I'LL NEVER LOVE THEE MORE" My dear and only Love, I pray This little world of thee Like Alexander I will reign, My thoughts did evermore disdain To Althea, From Prison He either fears his fate too much, That dares not put it to the touch But I must rule and govern still, Or in the empire of thy heart, But if thou wilt be faithful, then, Were never heard before; I'll crown and deck thee all with bays, And love thee evermore. 583 James Graham [1612-1650] TO ALTHEA, FROM PRISON WHEN Love with unconfinèd wings Hovers within my gates, And my divine Althea brings To whisper at the grates; |