Perch

Which

All m

Shoul

WHEN

Will

When

Difference of sex we never knew,

No more than guardian angels do;
Coming and going we

Perchance might kiss, but yet between those meals

Our hands ne'er toucht the seals,

Which nature, injured by late law, set free:
These miracles we did; but now, alas!
All measure and all language I should pass,
Should I tell what a miracle she was.

THE DAMP.

WHEN I am dead, and doctors know not why, And my friends' curiosity

Will have me cut up, to survey each part, When they shall find your picture in my heart, You think a sudden damp of love

Will through all their senses move,

And work on them as me, and so prefer
Your murder to the name of massacre.

Poor victories! but if you dare be brave,

And pleasure in your conquest have, First kill the enormous giant, your Disdain, And let the enchantress Honor next be slain ;

POEMS, SONGS, AND SONNETS

And like a Goth or Vandal rise,
Deface records and histories

Of your own arts and triumphs over me
And without such advantage kill me the

For I could muster up, as well as you, My giants and my witches too, Which are vast Constancy, and Secretnes But these I neither look for nor profess. Kill me as woman, let me die

As a mere man; do you but try

Your passive valor, and you shall find the
Naked you 've odds enough of

any man.

THE DISSOLUTION.

SHE's dead, and all which die,

To their first elements resolve ; And we were mutual elements to us, And made of one another. My body then doth hers involve, And those things, whereof I consist, hereby In me abundant grow and burdenous,

And nourish not, but smother.

My fire of passion, sighs of air, Water of tears, and earthy sad despair,

Which my materials be,

(But near worn out by Love's security,)
She, to my loss, doth by her death repair;
And I might live long wretched so,

But that my fire doth with my fuel grow.
Now as those active kings,

Whose foreign conquest treasure brings, Receive more, and spend more, and soonest break This (which I am amazed that I can speak) This death hath with my store

My use increased;

And so my soul, more earnestly released,
Will outstrip hers; as bullets flown before,
A later bullet may o'ertake, the powder being more.

A JET RING SENT.

THOU art not so black as my heart,

Nor half so brittle as her heart thou art; What wouldst thou say? shall both our properties by thee be spoke?

Nothing more endless, nothing sooner broke.

Marriage rings are not of this stuff;

Oh! why should aught less precious, or less tough

Figure our loves? except in thy nam bid it say,

I'm cheap and naught but fashi away.

Yet stay with me, since thou art Circle this finger's top, which didst Be justly proud, and gladly safe, tha dwell with me;

She that, oh! broke her faith, would thee.

NEGATIVE LOVE.

I NEVER stooped so low as they, Which on an eye, cheek, lip, can pre Seldom to them, which soar no hig Than virtue or the mind to admire For sense and understanding may

Know what gives fuel to their fire: My Love, though silly, is more brave For may I miss, whene'er I crave, If I know yet what I would have.

If that be simply perfectest,
Which can by no way be exprest