CXXXVI. LOVE'S PROTESTATION. TO ALTHEA. WHEN Love with unconfinèd wings The birds that wanton in the air When flowing cups run swiftly round With no allaying Thames, Our careless heads with roses crowned, When healths and draughts go free- When, linnet-like confinèd, I With shriller throat shall sing When I shall voice aloud how good Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage; That for an hermitage : Angels alone, that soar above, Richard Lovelace. CXXXVII. LOVE'S PROTESTATION. LOVE AND HONOUR. TELL me not, sweet, I am unkind Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind True, a new mistress now I chase, And with a stronger faith embrace Yet this inconstancy is such I could not love thee, Dear, so much, Loved I not honour more. Richard Lovelace. CXXXVIII. LOVE'S PROTESTATION. LOVE'S STEADFASTNESS. No more shall meads be decked with flowers, The fish shall in the occan burn, If e'er my Celia I deceive. Love shall his bow and shaft lay by, Love shall no more inhabit earth, Thomas Carew. CXXXIX. LOVE'S PROTESTATION. LOVE'S FLAME UNQUENCHABLE. How ill doth he deserve a lover's name, Cannot retain His heat, in spite of absence or disdain; True love cannot change his seat, Nor did he ever love that could retreat. That noble flame, which my breast keeps alive, Shall still survive When my soul's fled; Nor shall my love die when my body's dead, That shall wait on me in the lower shade, And never fade. My very ashes in their urn Shall, like a hallowed lamp, for ever burn. Thomas Carew. CXL. LOVE'S PROTESTATION. TO ELECTRA. I DARE not ask a kiss, I dare not beg a smile; I might grow proud the while. No, no; the utmost share Of my desire shall be Only to kiss the air That lately kissed thee. Robert Herrick. CXLI. LOVE'S PROTESTATION. TO HIS MISTRESS. You say, I love not, 'cause I do not play By love's religion, I must here confess it, Deep waters noiseless are; and this we know, CXLII. Robert Herrick. LOVE'S PROTESTATION. A BOND-SLAVE. WHEN I tie about thy wrist, Julia, this my siken twist, But to show thee how, in part, 'T is but silk that bindeth thee, I am bound, and fast bound, so If I could I would not so! Robert Herrick. CXLIII. LOVE'S PROTESTATION. TO LIVE AND DIE FOR THEE. BID me to live, and I will live 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,- Bid that heart stay, and it will stay, To honour thy decree : Or bid it languish quite away, Bid me to weep, and I will weep, E'en death, to die for thee. |