See how this ivy strives to twine[4:2]
Her wanton arms about the vine,
And her coy lover thus restrains,
Entangled in her amorous chains;
See how these neighb’ring palms do bend5
Their heads, and mutual murmurs send,
As whispering with a jealous fear[4:3]
Their loves into each other’s ear.
|
Then blush not such a flame to own As, like thyself, no crime hath known;10 Led by these harmless guides, we may Embrace and kiss as well as they. | } | [4:4] |
And like those blessed souls above,
Whose life is harmony and love,
Let us our mutual thoughts betray,15
And in our wills our minds display.
This silent speech is swifter far
Than the ears’ lazy species are;
And the expression it affords
(As our desires,) ’bove reach of words.20
Thus we, my Dear, of these may learn[4:5]
A passion others not discern;
Nor can it shame or blushes move,
Like plants to live, like angels love:
Since all excuse with equal innocence25
What above reason is, or beneath sense.
The Dedication.[5:1]
To Love.
Thou whose sole name all passions doth comprise:
Youngest and eldest of the Deities,
Born without parents, whose unbounded reign
Moves the firm earth, fixeth the floating main,
Inverts the course of heaven, and from the deep5
Awakes those souls that in dark Lethe sleep,
By thy mysterious chains seeking t’unite,
Once more, the long-since-torn hermaphrodite!
He who thy willing prisoner long was vow’d,
And uncompell’d beneath thy sceptre bow’d,10
Returns at last in thy soft fetters bound,
With victory, though not with freedom, crown’d:
And, (of his dangers past a grateful sign,)
Suspends this tablet at thy numerous shrine.
The Glow-Worm.
Stay, fairest Chariessa, stay and mark
This animated gem,[6:1] whose fainter spark
Of fading light, its birth had from the dark: