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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.Stanley, Thomas

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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

Think not thy pale flame can warm
                        Into tears,
    Or dissolve the snowy charm
      Which her frozen bosom wears,                                   10
    That expos'd unmelted lies
    To the bright suns of her eyes.

    But since thou thy power hast lost,
                        Nor canst fire
    Kindle in that breast, whose frost                                15
      Doth these flames in mine inspire;
    Not to thee but her I'll sue,
    That disdains both me and you!


          DELAY.

    Delay! Alas, there cannot be
    To Love a greater tyranny:
    Those cruel beauties that have slain
    Their votaries by their disdain,
    Or studied torments sharp and witty.                               5
    Will be recorded for their pity,
    And after-ages be misled
    To think them kind, when this is spread.
    Of deaths the speediest is despair;
    Delays the slowest tortures are;                                  10
    Thy cruelty at once destroys,
    But expectation starves my joys.
    Time and Delay may bring me past
    The power of Love to cure, at last;
    And shouldst thou wish to ease my pain,                           15
    Thy pity might be lent in vain.
    Or if thou hast decreed that I
    Must fall[36:1] beneath thy cruelty,
    O kill me soon! Thou wilt express
    More mercy, ev'n in showing less.                                 20


          THE REPULSE.

      Not that by this disdain
              I am releas'd,
    And, freed from thy romantic[37:1] chain,
      Do I myself think blest;

      Not that thy flame shall burn                                    5
              No more; for know
    That I shall into ashes turn
      Before this fire doth so.

      Nor yet that unconfin'd
              I now may rove,                                         10
    And with new beauties please my mind;
      But that thou ne'er didst love!

      For since thou hast no part
              Felt of this flame,
    I only from thy tyrant heart                                      15
      Repuls'd, not banish'd, am.

      To lose what once was mine
              Would grieve me more
    Than those inconstant sweets of thine
      Had pleas'd my soul before.                                     20

      Now I've not lost that[37:2] bliss
              I ne'er possessed;
    And, spite of Fate, am blest in this:
      That I was never blest.


          SONG.

    Celinda, by what potent art
      Or unresisted charm,
    Dost thou thine ear and frozen heart
      Against my passion arm?

    Or by what hidden influence                                        5
      Of powers in one combin'd,
    Dost thou rob Love of either sense,
      Made deaf as well as blind?

    Sure thou as friends[38:1] united hast
      Two distant deities,                                            10
    And scorn within thy heart hast plac'd,
      And love within thine eyes;

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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.

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