Richard Lovelace
If to be absent were to be Away from thee; Or that when I am gone, You or I were alone,- Then, my Lucasta, might I crave Pity from blust’ring wind or swallowing wave.
Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind, That from the nunnery Of thy chaste breasts, and quiet mind, To war and arms I fly. True, a new mistress now I chase, The first foe
Amarantha, sweet and fair, Ah, braid no more that shining hair! As my curious hand or eye Hovering round thee, let it fly! Let it fly as unconfined As its calm ravisher the wind,
Sweet serene sky-like flower, Haste to adorn her bower; From thy long cloudy bed Shoot forth thy damask head! New-startled blush of Flora, The grief of pale Aurora, Who will contest no more, Haste,
Why should you swear I am forsworn, Since thine I vowed to be? Lady, it is already morn, And ’twas last night I swore to thee That fond impossibility. Have I not loved thee
O thou that swing’st upon the waving ear Of some well-filled oaten beard, Drunk ev’ry night with a delicious tear Dropped thee from heav’n, where now th’ art reared, The joys of earth and
When love with unconfined wings Hovers within my gates, And my divine Althea brings To whisper at the grates; When I lie tangled in her hair, And fettered to her eye, The birds that