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
General
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
English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700; Stanley, Thomas, 1625-1678
Thyself of beauty to divest,
And me of love,
Or from the worth of thine own breast 15
Thus to detract, would prove
In us a blindness, and in thee
At best a sacrilegious modesty.
But, Celia,[40:3] if thou wilt despise
What all admire, 20
Nor rate thyself at the just price
Of beauty or desire,
Yet meet my flames! and thou shalt see
That equal love knows no disparity.
THE KISS.[41:1]
When on thy lip my soul I breathe,
Which there meets thine,
Freed from their fetters by this death,
Our subtle forms[41:2] combine:
Thus without bonds of sense they move, 5
And like two cherubim converse by[41:3] love.
Spirits to chains of earth confin'd
Discourse by sense;
But ours, that are by flames refin'd,
With those weak ties dispense. 10
Let such in words their minds display:
We in a kiss our mutual thoughts convey.[41:4]
But since my soul from me doth fly,
To thee retir'd,
Thou canst not both retain; for I 15
Must be with one inspir'd;
Then, Dearest,[41:5] either justly mine
Restore, or in exchange let me have thine.
Yet if thou dost return mine own,
O tak't again! 20
For 'tis this pleasing death alone
Gives ease unto my pain.
Kill me once more, or I shall find
Thy pity than thy cruelty less kind.
THE SNOWBALL.
Doris, I that could repel
All those darts about thee dwell,
And had wisely learn'd to fear
'Cause I saw a foe so near;
I that my deaf ear did arm 5
'Gainst thy voice's powerful charm;
And the lightning of thine eye
Durst, by closing mine, defy;
Cannot this cold snow withstand
From the winter[42:1] of thy hand. 10
Thy deceit hath thus done more
Than thy open force before:
For who could suspect or fear
Treason in a face so clear,
Or the hidden fires descry 15
Wrapt in this cold outside lie?
Flames might thus, involv'd in ice,
The deceiv'd world sacrifice;
Nature, ignorant of this
Strange antiperistasis, 20
Would her falling frame admire,
That by snow were set on fire!
SPEAKING AND KISSING.
The air which thy smooth voice doth break
Into my soul like lightning flies;
My life retires whilst thou dost speak,
And thy soft breath its room supplies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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