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I might as yet have been a spreading flower,
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Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied
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Love to myself, and to no love beside.
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'But woe is me! too early I attended
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A youthful suit- it was to gain my grace-
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O, one by nature's outwards so commended
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That maidens' eyes stuck over all his face.
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Love lacked a dwelling and made him her place;
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And when in his fair parts she did abide,
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She was new lodged and newly deified.
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'His browny locks did hang in crooked curls;
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And every light occasion of the wind
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Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls.
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What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find:
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Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind;
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For on his visage was in little drawn
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What largeness thinks in Paradise was sawn.
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'Small show of man was yet upon his chin;
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His phoenix down began but to appear,
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Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin,
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Whose bare out-bragged the web it seemed to wear:
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Yet showed his visage by that cost more dear;
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And nice affections wavering stood in doubt
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If best were as it was, or best without.
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'His qualities were beauteous as his form,
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For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free;
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Yet if men moved him, was he such a storm
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As oft 'twixt May and April is to see,
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When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be.
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His rudeness so with his authorized youth
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Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.
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'Well could he ride, and often men would say,
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"That horse his mettle from his rider takes:
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Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,
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What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop he makes!"
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And controversy hence a question takes
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Whether the horse by him became his deed,
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Or he his manage by th' well-doing steed.
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'But quickly on this side the verdict went:
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His real habitude gave life and grace
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To appertainings and to ornament,
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Accomplished in himself, not in his case,
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All aids, themselves made fairer by their place,
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Came for additions; yet their purposed trim
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Pierced not his grace, but were all graced by him.
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'So on the tip of his subduing tongue
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All kind of arguments and question deep,
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All replication prompt, and reason strong,
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For his advantage still did wake and sleep.
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To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
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He had the dialect and different skill,
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Catching all passions in his craft of will,
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'That he did in the general bosom reign
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Of young, of old, and sexes both enchanted,
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To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain
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In personal duty, following where he haunted.
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Consents bewitched, ere he desire, have granted,
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And dialogued for him what he would say,
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Asked their own wills, and made their wills obey.
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'Many there were that did his picture get,
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To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind;
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Like fools that in th' imagination set
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The goodly objects which abroad they find
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Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assigned;
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And labouring in moe pleasures to bestow them
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Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them.
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'So many have, that never touched his hand,
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Sweetly supposed them mistress of his heart.
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My woeful self, that did in freedom stand,
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And was my own fee-simple, not in part,
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What with his art in youth, and youth in art,
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Threw my affections in his charmed power
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Reserved the stalk and gave him all my flower.
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'Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
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Demand of him, nor being desired yielded;
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Finding myself in honour so forbid,
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With safest distance I mine honour shielded.
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Experience for me many bulwarks builded
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Of proofs new-bleeding, which remained the foil
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Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil.
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'But ah, who ever shunned by precedent
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The destined ill she must herself assay?
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Or forced examples, 'gainst her own content,
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To put the by-past perils in her way?
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Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay;
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For when we rage, advice is often seen
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By blunting us to make our wills more keen.
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