I pray thee leave! Love me no more! Call home the heart you gave me! I but in vain that Saint adore That can, but will not, save me. These poor half kisses kill me quite! Was ever man thus servèd? Amidst an ocean of delight. For pleasure to be starvèd.
Show me no more those snowy breasts With azure riverets branchèd! Where whilst mine Eye with plenty feeds, Yet is my thirst not staunchèd. O Tantalus, thy pains ne'er tell! By me thou art prevented: 'Tis nothing to be plagued in Hell; But, thus, in Heaven, tormented!
Clip me no more in those dear arms; Nor thy "Life's Comfort" call me! O these are but too powerful charms; And do but more enthrall me. But see how patient I am grown, In all this coil about thee! Come, nice Thing, let thy heart alone! I cannot live without thee!
A Hymn to his Lady's Birth-place.
Coventry finely walled.
COventry, that dost adorn The country [County] wherein I was born: Yet therein lies not thy praise; Why I should crown thy Towers with bays? 'Tis not thy Wall, me to thee weds; Thy Ports; nor thy proud Pyramids; The shoulder-bone of a Boar of mighty bigness. Nor thy trophies of the Boar: But that She which I adore, (Which scarce Goodness's self can pair) First there breathing, blest thy air.
Idea; in which name I hide Her, in my heart deified. For what good, Man's mind can see; Only her ideas be: She, in whom the Virtues came In Woman's shape, and took her name. She so far past imitation As (but Nature our creation Could not alter) she had aimed More than Woman to have framed. She whose truly written story, To thy poor name shall add more glory, Than if it should have been thy chance T' have bred our Kings that conquered France.
Two famous Pilgrimages: one in Norfolk, the other in Kent. Had she been born the former Age, That house had been a Pilgrimage; And reputed more Divine Than Walsingham, or Becket's Shrine. Godiva, Duke Leofric's wife, who obtained the freedom of the city of her husband, by riding through it naked. That Princess, to whom thou dost owe Thy Freedom (whose clear blushing snow The envious sun saw; when as she Naked rode to make thee free), Was but her type: as to foretell Thou shouldst bring forth One should excel Her bounty; by whom thou shouldst have More Honour, than she Freedom gave. Queen Elizabeth. And that great Queen, which but of late Ruled this land in peace and State, Had not been; but Heaven had sworn A Maid should reign when She was born.
Of thy streets, which thou hold'st best, And most frequent of the rest; A noted street in Coventry. His Mistress's birthday. Happy Mich Park! Every year, On the Fourth of August there, Let thy Maids, from Flora's bowers, With their choice and daintiest flowers Deck thee up! and from their store, With brave garlands crown that door!
The old man passing by that way, To his son, in time, shall say: "There was that Lady born: which Long to after Ages shall be sung." Who, unawares being passed by, Back to that house shall cast his eye; Speaking my verses as he goes, And with a sigh shut every Close.
Dear City! travelling by thee, When thy rising Spires I see, Destined her Place of Birth; Yet methinks the very earth Hallowed is, so far as I Can thee possibly descry. Then thou, dwelling in this place, (Hearing some rude hind disgrace Thy city, with some scurvy thing Which some Jester forth did bring) Speak these Lines, where thou dost come, And strike the slave for ever dumb.
Footnotes
[19] In Warwickshire.
