Absence, hear thou my protestation
Against thy strength,

Distance, and length;

Do what thou canst for alteration,
For hearts of truest mettle

Absence doth join and time doth settle.

Who loves a mistress of such quality,
His mind hath found

Affection's ground

Beyond time, place, and all mortality;
To hearts that cannot vary

Absence is present, Time doth tarry.

My senses want their outward motion,
Which now within

Reason doth win,

Redoubled by her secret notion;

Like rich men that take pleasure
In hiding more than handling treasure.

By absence this good means I gain,
That I can catch her,
Where none can watch her,

In

some close corner of my brain;
There I embrace and kiss her,
And so I both enjoy and miss her.

Donne.

Love me or not, love her I must or die;
Leave me or not, follow her, needs must I.

O that her grace would my wished comforts give!
How rich in her, how happy should I live!

All my desire, all my delight should be,
Her to enjoy, her to unite to me:

Envy should cease, her would I love alone:
Who loves by looks is seldom true to one.

Could I enchant, and that it lawful were,
Her would I charm softly that none should hear.
But love enforced rarely yields firm content;

So would I love that neither should repent.

Campion.

248

Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part.
Nay, I have done, you get no more of me,
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free.
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of Love's latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies,
When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And Innocence is closing up his eyes,

Now, if thou wouldst, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou might'st him yet recover.
Drayton.

Fain would I change that note

To which fond love hath charmed me Long, long to sing by rote,

Fancying that that harmed me:
Yet when this thought doth come,
Love is the perfect sum
Of all delight",

66

I have no other choice

Either for pen or voice
To sing or write.

O Love, they wrong thee much
That say thy sweet is bitter,
When thy ripe fruit is such
As nothing can be sweeter
Fair house of joy and bliss,
Where truest pleasure is,
I do adore thee;

I know thee what thou art,
I serve thee with my heart,
And fall before thee.

Anonymous.

250

Shall I look to ease my grief?
No, my sight is lost with eying:
Shall I speak and beg relief?

No, my voice is hoarse with crying:
What remains but only dying?

Love and I of late did part,

But the boy, my peace envying,
Like a Parthian threw his dart
Backward, and did wound me flying:
What remains but only dying?

She whom then I looked on,
My remembrance beautifying,
Stays with me though I am gone,
Gone, and at her mercy lying:
What remains but only dying?

Shall I try her thoughts and write?
No, I have no means of trying:
If I should, yet at first sight

She would answer with denying:
What remains but only dying?

Thus vital breath doth waste,
my

And, my blood with sorrow drying,
Sighs and tears make life to last
For a while, their place supplying:
What remains but only dying?

Anonymous.

251

There is none, 0

but none

you,

That from me estrange your sight,

Whom mine eyes affect to view
Or chained ears hear with delight.

Such is the effect of love,

To make them happy that are kind.

Women in frail beauty trust,

Only seem you

fair to me:

Yet prove truly kind and just,

For that may not dissembled be.

Sweet, afford me then

That, surveying all

your

Endless volumes I may write

And fill the world with envied books:

Which when after-ages view,

All shall wonder and despair,
Woman to find man so true,
Or man a woman half

so fair.

Campion.

252

The Canonization

For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love; Or chide my palsy, or my gout;

My five grey hairs, or ruined fortune flout; With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve; Take you a course, get you a place,

Observe his Honour, or his Grace;

Or the king's real, or his stamped face Contemplate; what you will, approve, you will let me love.

So