A Lovers Complaint

“Appear to him, as he to me appears, All melting; though our drops this difference bore: His poison'd me, and mine did him restore.”

“In him a plenitude of subtle matter, Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives, Of burning blushes or of weeping water, Or swooning paleness; and he takes and leaves,”

“Now all these hearts that do on mine depend, Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine, And supplicant their sighs to your extend, To leave the battery that you make 'gainst mine,”

“O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies In the small orb of one particular tear! But with the inundation of the eyes What rocky heart to water will not wear?”

“O, how the channel to the stream gave grace! Who, glaz'd with crystal, gate the glowing roses That flame through water which their hue encloses.”

“O, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestow'd, O, all that borrow'd motion, seeming ow'd, Would yet again betray the fore-betray'd, And new pervert a reconciled maid.”

“That not a heart which in his level came Could scape the hail of his all-hurting aim, Showing fair nature is both kind and tame; And, veil'd in them, did win whom he would maim:”

“When thou impressest, what are precepts worth Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame, How coldly those impediments stand forth, Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame!”

“O most potential love! vow, bond, nor space, In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine, For thou art all, and all things else are thine.”

“I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong, Must for your victory us all congest, As compound love to physic your cold breast.”

“Religious love put out religion's eye: Not to be tempted, would she be immur'd, And now, to tempt all, liberty procur'd.”

“But O, my sweet, what labour is't to leave The thing we have not, mastering what not strives? Paling the place which did no form receive, Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves:”

“For she was sought by spirits of richest coat, But kept cold distance, and did thence remove To spend her living in eternal love.”

“She that her fame so to herself contrives, The scars of battle 'scapeth by the flight, And makes her absence valiant, not her might.”

“Nature hath charg'd me that I hoard them not, But yield them up where I myself must render, That is, to you, my origin and ender: For these, of force, must your oblations be, Since I their altar, you enpatron me.”

“The diamond, why 'twas beautiful and hard, Whereto his invis'd properties did tend; The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend;”

“Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me Of grief and blushes, aptly understood In bloodless white and the encrimson'd mood; Effects of terror and dear modesty, Encamp'd in hearts, but fighting outwardly.”

“Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed; Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free, And reign'd, commanding in his monarchy.”

“With the annexions of fair gems enrich'd, And deep-brain'd sonnets that did amplify Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality.”

“That's to you sworn, to none was ever said; For feasts of love I have been call'd unto, Till now did ne'er invite, nor never woo.”

“They sought their shame that so their shame did find; And so much less of shame in me remains, By how much of me their reproach contains.”

“But ah! who ever shunn'd by precedent The destin'd ill she must herself assay? Or force'd examples, 'gainst her own content, To put the by-pass'd perils in her way?”

“Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay; For when we rage, advice is often seen By blunting us to make our wills more keen.”

“Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling; Thought characters and words, merely but art, And bastards of his foul adulterate heart.”

“Yet did I not, as some my equals did, Demand of him, nor being desired yielded; Finding myself in honour so forbid, With safest distance I mine honour shielded:”

“All aids, themselves made fairer by their place, Came for additions; yet their purpos'd trim Pierc'd not his grace, but were all grac'd by him.”

“Consents bewitch'd, ere he desire, have granted; And dialogued for him what he would say, Ask'd their own wills, and made their wills obey.”

“Many there were that did his picture get, To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind; Like fools that in the imagination set The goodly objects which abroad they find”

“To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep, He had the dialect and different skill, Catching all passions in his craft of will;”

“What with his heart in youth, and youth in art, Threw my affections in his charmed power, Reserv'd the stalk, and gave him all my flower.”

“And controversy hence a question takes, Whether the horse by him became his deed, Or he his manage by the well-doing steed.”

“Yet if men mov'd him, was he such a storm As oft 'twixt May and April is to see, When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be. His rudeness so with his authoriz'd youth Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.”

“A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh, Sometime a blusterer, that the ruffle knew Of court, of city, and had let go by The swiftest hours, observed as they flew,”

“Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind; For on his visage was in little drawn, What largeness thinks in paradise was sawn.”

“Love lack'd a dwelling and made him her place; And when in his fair parts she did abide, She was new lodg'd and newly deified.”

“So slides he down upon his grained bat, And comely-distant sits he by her side; When he again desires her, being sat, Her grievance with his hearing to divide:”

“Yet show'd his visage by that cost more dear; And nice affections wavering stood in doubt If best were as it was, or best without.”

“A thousand favours from a maund she drew Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet, Which one by one she in a river threw, Upon whose weeping margent she was set;”

“Of folded schedules had she many a one, Which she perus'd, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood; Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone, Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud;”

“Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride; As they did battery to the spheres intend; Sometime diverted their poor balls are tied To th' orbed earth; sometimes they do extend Their view right on; anon their gazes lend To every place at once, and nowhere fix'd, The mind and sight distractedly commix'd.”