Come, Anthea, know thou this,
Love at no time idle is;
Let's be doing, though we play
But at push-pin half the day;
Chains of sweet bents let us make
Captive one, or both, to take:
In which bondage we will lie,
Souls transfusing thus, and die.
Push-pin, a childish game in which one player placed a pin and the other pushed it.
Bents, grasses.
679. CRUELTIES.
Nero commanded; but withdrew his eyes
From the beholding death and cruelties.
680. PERSEVERANCE.
Hast thou begun an act? ne'er then give o'er:
No man despairs to do what's done before.
681. UPON HIS VERSES.
What offspring other men have got,
The how, where, when, I question not.
These are the children I have left,
Adopted some, none got by theft;
But all are touch'd, like lawful plate,
And no verse illegitimate.
Touch'd, tested.