Let not thy divining heart
Forethink me any ill;
Destiny may take thy part,
And may thy fears fulfil.
But think that we

Are but turn'd aside to sleep.
They who one another keep
Alive, ne'er parted be.

THE LEGACY.

WHEN last I died, and, dear, I die
As often as from thee I go,

Though it be but an hour ago

-And lovers' hours be full eternity

I can remember yet, that I

Something did say, and something did bestow;
Though I be dead, which sent me, I might be
Mine own executor, and legacy.

1. 36. So 1633, 1669; 1635, make

1. 38. 1669, laid aside

1. 1. So 1669; 1633, I died last

1. 7. So 1669; 1633, I should be; 1635, which meant me, I should be

40

I heard me say, "Tell her anon,

That myself," that is you, not I,

10

"Did kill me," and when I felt me die,

I bid me send my heart, when I was gone;
But I alas! could there find none;

When I had ripp'd, and search'd where hearts should lie,

It kill'd me again, that I who still was true

In life, in my last will should cozen you.

Yet I found something like a heart,
But colours it, and corners had;

It was not good, it was not bad,

It was entire to none, and few had part ;
As good as could be made by art

1

It seemed, and therefore for our loss be sad.
I meant to send that heart instead of mine,
But O! no man could hold it, for 'twas thine.

1. 14. So 1635; 1633, ripp'd me... did lie
1. 22. So 1669; 1633, losses sad

20

A FEVER.

O! Do not die, for I shall hate
All women so, when thou art gone,
That thee I shall not celebrate,

When I remember thou wast one.

But yet thou canst not die, I know;
To leave this world behind, is death ;
But when thou from this world wilt go,

The whole world vapours with thy breath.

Or if, when thou, the world's soul, go'st,
It stay, 'tis but thy carcase then ;
The fairest woman, but thy ghost,
But corrupt worms, the worthiest men.

O wrangling schools, that search what fire
Shall burn this world, had none the wit
Unto this knowledge to aspire,

That this her fever might be it?

And yet she cannot waste by this,
Nor long bear this torturing wrong,
For more corruption needful is,

To fuel such a fever long.

10

20

1. 8. 1669, in thy breath

1. 18. 1669, endure

These burning fits but meteors be,

Whose matter in thee is soon spent ;
Thy beauty, and all parts, which are thee,
Are unchangeable firmament.

Yet 'twas of my mind, seizing thee,
Though it in thee cannot perséver;

For I had rather owner be

Of thee one hour, than all else ever.

28

AIR AND ANGELS.

TWICE or thrice had I loved thee,
Before I knew thy face or name;
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame,
Angels affect us oft, and worshipp'd be.
Still when, to where thou wert, I came,
Some lovely glorious nothing did I see.

But since my soul, whose child love is,
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
More subtle than the parent is

Love must not be, but take a body too;
And therefore what thou wert, and who,

I bid love ask, and now

That it assume thy body, I allow,

And fix itself in thy lips, eyes, and brow.

1. 22. 1669, soon is

1. 25. 1669, And here as
1. 6. So 1669; 1633, I did

1. 24. 1669, An

1. 27. 1669, Yet,

IO

L. 14. So 1669; 1633, lip, eye

Whilst thus to ballast love I thought,
And so more steadily to have gone,
With wares which would sink admiration,
I saw I had love's pinnace overfraught;
Thy every hair for love to work upon

Is much too much; some fitter must be sought; 20
For, nor in nothing, nor in things
Extreme, and scattering bright, can love inhere;
Then as an angel face and wings

Of air, not pure as it, yet pure doth wear,
So thy love may be my love's sphere;

Just such disparity

As is 'twixt air's and angels' purity,

'Twixt women's love, and men's, will ever be.

BREAK OF DAY.

STAY, O sweet, and do not rise;

The light that shines comes from thine eyes;
The day breaks not, it is my heart,

Because that you and I must part.
Stay, or else my joys will die
And perish in their infancy.

1. 19. So 1669; 1633, Every thy
1. 27. So 1669; 1633, air