He whose active thoughts disdain
To be captive to one foe,
And would break his single chain,
Or else more would undergo,
Let him learn the art of me,5
By new bondage to be free!
What tyrannic mistress dare
To one beauty Love confine?
Who, unbounded as the air,
All may court, but none decline.10
Why should we the heart deny
As many objects as the eye?
Wheresoe’er I turn or move,
A new passion doth detain me:
Those kind beauties that do love,15
Or those proud ones that disdain me.
This frown melts, and that smile burns me;
This to tears, that, ashes, turns me.
Soft fresh virgins not full-blown
With their youthful sweetness take me;20
Sober matrons that have known,
Long since, what these prove, awake me;
Here, staid coldness I admire,
There, the lively active fire.
She that doth by skill dispense25
Every favour she bestows,
Or the harmless innocence
Which nor court nor city knows;—
Both alike my soul inflame,
That wild beauty, and this tame.30
She that wisely can adorn
Nature with the wealth of Art,
Or whose rural sweets do scorn
Borrow’d helps to[44:1] take a heart;—
The vain care of that’s my pleasure;35
Poverty of this, my treasure.
Both the wanton and the coy
Me with equal pleasure[44:2] move;
She whom I by force enjoy,
Or who forceth me to love:40
This, because she’ll not confess,
That, not hide, her happiness.
She whose loosely flowing hair,
(Scatter’d like the beams o’ th’ morn.)
Playing with the sportive air,45
Hides the sweets it doth adorn,
Captive in that net restrains me,
In those golden fetters chains me;
Nor doth she with power less bright
My divided heart invade,50
Whose soft tresses spread, like night,
O’er her shoulders a black shade;
For the starlight of her eyes
Brighter shines through those dark skies.
Black, or fair, or tall, or low,55
I alike with all can sport,
The bold sprightly Thaïs woo,
Or the frozen vestal court:
Every beauty takes my mind,
Tied to all, to none confin’d.60