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Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed; |
Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free, |
And reigned commanding in his monarchy. |
'"Look here what tributes wounded fancies sent me, |
Of paled pearls and rubies red as blood; |
Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me |
Of grief and blushes, aptly understood |
In bloodless white and the encrimsoned mood- |
Effects of terror and dear modesty, |
Encamped in hearts, but fighting outwardly. |
'"And, lo, behold these talents of their hair, |
With twisted metal amorously empleached, |
I have receiv'd from many a several fair, |
Their kind acceptance weepingly beseeched, |
With the annexions of fair gems enriched, |
And deep-brained sonnets that did amplify |
Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality. |
'"The diamond? why, 'twas beautiful and hard, |
Whereto his invised properties did tend; |
The deep-green em'rald, in whose fresh regard |
Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend; |
The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend |
With objects manifold; each several stone, |
With wit well blazoned, smiled, or made some moan. |
'"Lo, all these trophies of affections hot, |
Of pensived and subdued desires the tender, |
Nature hath charged me that I hoard them not, |
But yield them up where I myself must render- |
That is, to you, my origin and ender; |
For these, of force, must your oblations be, |
Since I their altar, you enpatron me. |
'"O then advance of yours that phraseless hand |
Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise; |
Take all these similes to your own command, |
Hallowed with sighs that burning lungs did raise; |
What me your minister for you obeys |
Works under you; and to your audit comes |
Their distract parcels in combined sums. |
'"Lo, this device was sent me from a nun, |
Or sister sanctified, of holiest note, |
Which late her noble suit in court did shun, |
Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote; |
For she was sought by spirits of richest coat, |
But kept cold distance, and did thence remove |
To spend her living in eternal love. |
'"But, O my sweet, what labour is't to leave |
The thing we have not, mast'ring what not strives, |
Playing the place which did no form receive, |
Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves! |
She that her fame so to herself contrives, |
The scars of battle scapeth by the flight, |
And makes her absence valiant, not her might. |
'"O pardon me in that my boast is true! |
The accident which brought me to her eye |
Upon the moment did her force subdue, |
And now she would the caged cloister fly. |
Religious love put out religion's eye. |
Not to be tempted, would she be immured, |
And now to tempt all liberty procured. |
'"How mighty then you are, O hear me tell! |
The broken bosoms that to me belong |
Have emptied all their fountains in my well, |
And mine I pour your ocean all among. |
I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong, |
Must for your victory us all congest, |
As compound love to physic your cold breast. |
'"My parts had pow'r to charm a sacred nun, |
Who, disciplined, ay, dieted in grace, |
Believed her eyes when they t'assail begun, |
All vows and consecrations giving place, |
O most potential love, vow, bond, nor space, |
In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine, |
For thou art all, and all things else are thine. |
'"When thou impressest, what are precepts worth |
Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame, |
How coldly those impediments stand forth, |
Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame! |
Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense, 'gainst shame. |
And sweetens, in the suff'ring pangs it bears, |
The aloes of all forces, shocks and fears. |
'"Now all these hearts that do on mine depend, |
Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine, |
And supplicant their sighs to your extend, |
To leave the batt'ry that you make 'gainst mine, |
Lending soft audience to my sweet design, |
And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath, |
That shall prefer and undertake my troth." |
'This said, his wat'ry eyes he did dismount, |
Whose sights till then were levelled on my face; |
Each cheek a river running from a fount |
With brinish current downward flowed apace. |
O, how the channel to the stream gave grace! |
Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses |
That flame through water which their hue encloses. |
'O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies |
In the small orb of one particular tear! |
But with the inundation of the eyes |
What rocky heart to water will not wear? |
What breast so cold that is not warmed here? |
O cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath, |
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