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Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait. — John Shaqi

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Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.

Name: Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.
Author: Stanley, Thomas

Stanley, Thomas

English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700; Stanley, Thomas, 1625-1678

Let no tears or offerings move thee,
      All those cunning charms avoid;                                 20
    For that wealth for which they love thee,
      They would slight if once enjoy'd.
    Guard thy unrelenting mind!  }
    None are cruel but the kind. }[22:5]


          EXPOSTULATION WITH LOVE, IN DESPAIR.

    Love! what tyrannic laws must they obey    }
    Who bow beneath thy uncontrolled sway!     }
    Or how unjust will that harsh empire prove }[23:1]
    Forbids to hope and yet commands to love!  }
    Must all are to thy hell condemn'd sustain                         5
    A double torture of despair and pain?
    Is't not enough vainly to hope and woo,
    That thou shouldst thus deny that vain hope too?
    It were some joy,[23:2] Ixion-like, to fold
    The empty air, or feed on thoughts as cold;[23:3]                 10
    But if thou to my passion this deny,
    Thou may'st be starv'd to death as well as I;
    For how can thy pale sickly flame burn clear
    When death and cold despair inhabit here?[23:4]
    Then let thy dim heat warm, or else expire;[23:5]                 15
    Dissolve this frost, or let that quench the[23:6] fire.
    Thus let me not desire, or else possess!
    Neither, or both, are equal happiness.[23:7]


          SONG.

    Faith, 'tis not worth thy pains and care
            To seek t'ensnare
        A heart so poor as mine:[24:1]
            Some fools there be
            Hate liberty,                                              5
    Who[m] with more ease thou may'st confine.

    Alas! when with much charge thou hast
            Brought it at last
        Beneath thy power to bow,
            It will adore                                             10
            Some twenty more,
    And that, perhaps, you'd[24:2] not allow.

    No, Chloris, I no more will prove
            The curse of love,
        And now can boast a heart                                     15
            Hath learn'd of thee
            Inconstancy,
    And cozen'd women of their art.


          EXPECTATION.

      Chide, chide no more away
    The fleeting daughters of the day,
    Nor with impatient thoughts outrun
            The lazy sun,
    Nor[25:1] think the hours do move too slow;                        5
            Delay is kind,
        And we too soon shall find
    That which we seek, yet fear to know.

      The mystic dark decrees
    Unfold not of the Destinies,                                      10
    Nor boldly seek to antedate
            The laws of Fate;
    Thy anxious search awhile forbear,
            Suppress thy haste,
        And know that Time at last                                    15
    Will crown thy hope, or fix thy fear.




VI. LYRICS PRINTED IN ALL ORIGINAL EDITIONS OF STANLEY.


          THE BREATH.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657.: With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.

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