That by this separation I may give
That due to thee, which thou deserv'st alone.
Oh absence! what a torment would'it thou prove,
Were't not that thy four leisure gave sweet leave
To entertain the time with thoughts of love,
Who time and thoughts so sweetly dost deceive;
And that thou teachest how to make one twain,
By praising him here, who doth hence remain.
Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all,
What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?
No love, my love, that thou may'st true love call,
All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more.
Then if for my love, thou my love receivest,,
I cannot blame thee, for my love thou usest;
But yet be blam'd, if thou thyself deceivest
By wilful taste of what thyself refusest.
I do forgive thy robb'ry, gentle thief,
Altho' thou steal thee all my poverty:
And yet love knows it is a greater grief
To bear love's wrong, than hate's known injury.
Lafcivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,
Kill me with spite, yet we must not be foes.
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits,
When I am sometimes absent from thy heart,
Thy beauty and thy years full well befit,
For still temptation follows where thou art.
Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won;
Beauteous thou art, and therefore to be affailed,
And when a woman woos, what woman's fon
Will fourly leave her till he have prevailed?
Ah me! but yet thou might'st my feat forbear, And chide thy beauty and thy straying youth, Who lead thee in their riot even there,
Where thou art forc'd to break a twofold truth:: Hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee, Thine by thy beauty being false to me.
That thou hast her, it is not all my grief,
And yet it may be said I lov'd her dearly;
That the hath thee, is of my wailing chief,,
A lofs in love that touches me more nearly.
Loving offenders, thus. I will excuse ye,
Thou doft love her, because thou know'st I love here;
And for my fake even so doth the abuse me,
Suffering my friend, for my fake, to approve her
If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain,
And lofing her, my friend hath found that lofs :..
Both find each other, and I lose both twain,
And both for my fake lay on me this cross.
But here's the joy, my friend and I are one,
Sweet flattery, then she loves but me alone..
Venus with Adonis fitting by her,
Under a myrtle shade, began to woo him:
She told the youngling how god Mars did try her,
And as he fell to her, she fell to him.
Even thus (quoth she) the warlike god embrac'd me,
And then the clipt. Adonis in her arms:
Even thus (quoth she) the warlike god'unlac'd me,
As if the boy should use like loving charms.
Even thus (quoth she) he seized on my lips,
And with her lips on his did act the seizure:.
And as she fetched breath, away he skips,
And would not take her meaning nor her pleasure.
Ah! that I had my lady at this bay,
To kiss and clip me till I run away.
Crabbed age and youth cannot live together;
Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care ;
Youth like fummer morn, age like winter weather;
Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare.
Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short;
Youth is nimble, age is lame;
Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold;
Youth is wild, and age is tame.
Age I do abhor thee, youth I do adore thee;
O! my love, my love is young:
Age I do defy thee, O! sweet shepherd hie thee;
For, methinks, thou stay'st too long.
Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good,
A mining glofs, that fadeth fuddenly;
A flower that dies, when first it 'gins to bud;
A brittle glass, that's broken presently.
A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower.
Loft, faded, broken, dead within an hour..
And as goods lost, are seld' or never found;
As faded gloss no rubbing will refresh;
As flowers dead, lie withered on the ground;
As broken glass, no cement can redress:
So beauty blemish'd once, for ever's lost,
In spite of physic, painting, pain and cost.
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance should not stop my way;
For then, despite of space, I would be brought
To limits far remote, where thou dost stay.
No matter then altho' my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth remov'd from thee;
For nimble thought can jump both fea and land,
As soon as think the place where he would be.
But, ah! thought kills me, that I am not thought,
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone;
But that so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend time's leisure with my moan;
Receiving nought by elements so flow
But heavy tears, badges of either's woe.
The other two, flight air, and purging fire,
Are both with thee, where-ever I abide;
The first my thought, the other my defire;
These present, absent, with swift motion slide..
For when these quicker elements are gone,
In tender embassy of love to thee,
My life being made of four, with two alone
Sinks down to death, opprest with melancholy
Until life's composition be recured,
By those swift messengers return'd from thee,
Who even but now come back again affured
Of their fair health, recounting it to me.
This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,
I send them back again, and strait grow fad.
Sweet rofe, fair flower, untimely pluck'd, soon faded,
Pluck'd in the bud, and faded in the spring :
Bright orient pearl, alack! too timely shaded,
Fair creature kill'd too foon by death's sharp sting:
Like a green plumb, that hangs upon a tree,
And falls (thro' wind) before the fall should be.
I weep for thee, and yet no cause I have,
For why? Thou lefts me nothing in thy will;
And yet thou lefts me more than I did crave:
For why? I craved nothing of thee still :
O yes (dear friend) I pardon crave of thee,
Thy discontent thou didst bequeath to me.
Full many a glorious morning have I seen,
Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,
Kiffing with golden face the meadows green;
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchymy;
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride,
With ugly rack on his celestial face,
And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace.
Even so my fun one early morn did shine,
With all triumphant splendor on my brow;
But out, alack! he was but one hour mine,
The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now.
Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth;
Suns of the world may stain, when heaven's fun
[staineth.
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day,
And make me travel forth without my cloke,
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