The Kiss.[41:1]
When on thy lip my soul I breathe,
Which there meets thine,
Freed from their fetters by this death,
Our subtle forms[41:2] combine:
Thus without bonds of sense they move,5
And like two cherubim converse by[41:3] love.
Spirits to chains of earth confin’d
Discourse by sense;
But ours, that are by flames refin’d,
With those weak ties dispense.10
Let such in words their minds display:
We in a kiss our mutual thoughts convey.[41:4]
But since my soul from me doth fly,
To thee retir’d,
Thou canst not both retain; for I15
Must be with one inspir’d;
Then, Dearest,[41:5] either justly mine
Restore, or in exchange let me have thine.
Yet if thou dost return mine own,
O tak’t again!20
For ’tis this pleasing death alone
Gives ease unto my pain.
Kill me once more, or I shall find
Thy pity than thy cruelty less kind.
Doris, I that could repel
All those darts about thee dwell,
And had wisely learn’d to fear
’Cause I saw a foe so near;
I that my deaf ear did arm5
’Gainst thy voice’s powerful charm;
And the lightning of thine eye
Durst, by closing mine, defy;
Cannot this cold snow withstand
From the winter[42:1] of thy hand.10
Thy deceit hath thus done more
Than thy open force before:
For who could suspect or fear
Treason in a face so clear,
Or the hidden fires descry15
Wrapt in this cold outside lie?
Flames might thus, involv’d in ice,
The deceiv’d world sacrifice;
Nature, ignorant of this
Strange antiperistasis,20
Would her falling frame admire,
That by snow were set on fire!
Speaking and Kissing.