E'en so we met ; and after long pursuit,

E'en so we join'd ; we both became entire ; No need for either to renew a suit,

For I was flax and he was flames of fire :

Our firm-united souls did more than twine ;
So I my Best-Belovéd's am ; so He is mine.
If all those glittering Monarchs that command

The servile quarters of this earthly ball,
Should tender, in exchange, their shares of land,

I would not change my fortunes for them all :

Their wealth is but a counter to my coin : The world's but theirs ; but my Belovéđ's mine.

F. Quarles

CXXIV

TO ANTHEA ILHO MAI COLIIANI TIIM

ANY THING
Bid me to live, and I will live

Thy Protestant to be :
Or bid me love, and I will give

A loving heart to thee.
A heart as soft, a heart as kind,

A heart as sound and free
As in the whole world thou canst find,

That heart I'll give to thee.
Bid that heart stay, and it will stay,

To honour thy decree :
Or bid it languish quite away,

And 't shall do so for thee.
Bid me to weep, and I will weep

While I have eyes to see :
And having none, yet I will keep

A heart to weep for thee.
Bid me despair, and I'll despair,

Under that cypress tree :
Or bid me die, and I will dare
E'en Death, to die for thee.

II

Thou art my life, my love, my heart,

The very eyes of me,
And hast command of every part,
To live and die for thee.

R. Herrick

CXXV
Love not me for comely grace,
For my pleasing eye or face,
Nor for any outward part,
No, nor for my constant heart,-
For those 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!

Anon.

CXXVI
Not, Celia, that I juster am

Or better than the rest ;
For I would change each hour, like them,

Were not my heart at rest. But I am tied to very thee

By every thought I have ; Thy face I only care to see,

Thy heart I only crave.
All that in woman is adored

In thy dear self I find -
For the whole sex can but afford

The handsome and the kind.
Why then should I seek further store,

And still make love anew ?
When change itself can give no more,
'Tis easy to be true.

Sir C. Sedley

CXXVII

TO ALTHEA FROJI PRISON
When Love with unconfined wings

Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings

To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair

And fetter'd to her eye,
The Gods that wanton in the air

Know no such liberty.

When flowing cups run swiftly round

With no allaying Thames,
Our careless heads with roses bound,

Our hearts with loyal flames ;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,

When healths and draughts go freeFishes that tipple in the deep

Know no such liberty.

When, (like committed linnets), I

With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty

And glories of my King ;
When I shall voice aloud how good

He is, how great should be,
Enlargéd winds, that curl the flood,

Know no such liberty.

Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an hermitage ;
If I have freedom in my love

And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.

Colonel Lovelace

II 2

CXXVIII
TO LUCASTA, GOING BEYOND THE

SEAS
If to be absent were to be

Away from thee;
Or that when I am gone

You or I were alone ;

Then, my Lucasta, might I crave
Pity from blustering wind, or swallowing wave.
But I'll not sigh one blast or gale

To swell my sail,
Or pay a tear to 'suage

The foaming blue-god's rage ;

For whether he will let me pass
Or no, I'm still as happy as I was.
Though seas and land betwixt us both,

Our faith and troth,
Like separated souls,

All time and space controls :

Above the highest sphere we meet Unseen, unknown, and greet as Angels greet. So then we do anticipate

Our aster-fate,
And are alive i' the skies,

If thus our lips and eyes

Can speak like spirits unconfined
In Heaven, their earthy bodies left behind.

Colonel Lovelace

CXXIX

ENCOURAGEMENTS TO A LOVER
Why so pale and wan, fond lover?

Prythee, why so pale ?
Will, if looking well can't move her,

Looking ill prevail ?
Prythee, why so pale ?

Why so dull and mute, young sinner ?

Prythee, why so mute?
Will, when speaking well can't win her,

Saying nothing do't ?
Prythee, why so mute?

Quit, quit, for shame! this will not move,

This cannot take her ;
If of herself she will not love,

Nothing can make her :
The D-1 take her!

Sir J. Suckling

CXXX

- SUPPLICATION Iwake, awake, my Lyre! And tell thy silent master's humble tale

In sounds that may prevail ; Sounds that gentle thoughts inspire :

Though so exalted she

And I so lowly be Tell her, such different notes make all thy harmony.

lIark, how the strings awake! And, though the moving hand approach not near,

Themselves with awful fear
A kind of numerous trembling make.

Now all thy forces try ;

Now all thy charms apply ;
Revenge upon her ear the conquests of her eye.

Weak Lyre ! thy virtue sure
Is useless here, since thou art only found

To cure, but not to wound,
And she to wound, but not to cure.

Too weak too wilt thou prove

My passion to remove; Physic to other ills, thou'rt nourishment to Love.