Hope waits upon the flow'ry prime ;
And fummer, tho' it be less gay,
Yet is not look'd on as a time
Of declination, or decay:
For, with a full hand, that does bring
All that was promis'd by the spring.
To AMOR E T.
AIR! that you may truly know
unto THYRSIS Owe;
I will tell you how I do
SACHARISSA love and You.
Joy falutes me, when I fet
My bleft eyes on AMORET:
But with wonder I am ftrook,
While I on the other look.
If fweet AMORET complains,
I have fenfe of all her pains:
But for SACHARISSA I
Do not only grieve, but die.
All that of myself is mine,
Lovely AMORET! is thine,
SACHARISSA's captive fain
Would untie his iron chain;
And, thofe fcorching beams to fhun,
To thy gentle fhadow run.
If the foul had free election
To difpofe of her affection
I would not thus long have born
Haughty SACHARISSA's fcorn:
But 'tis fure fome Pow'r above,
Which controuls our wills in love!
'Tis amazment more than love, Which her radiant eyes do move: If lefs fplendor wait on thine, Yet they fo benignly shine, I would turn my dazled fight To behold their milder light. But as hard 'tis to destroy That high flame, as to enjoy: Which how eas❜ly I may do, Heav'n (as eas'ly fcal'd)does know! AMORET! as fweet and good As the most delicious food Which, but tafted, does impart Life and gladness to the heart. SACHARISSA's beauty's wine, Which to madness doth incline: Such a liquor, as no brain
That is mortal can fuftain.
Scarce can I to heav'n excufe The devotion, which I ufe Unto that adored dame : For 'tis not unlike the fame, Which I thither ought to fend. So that if it could take end, 'Twould to heav'n itself be due To fucceed her, and not you : Who already have of me All that's not idolatry:
Which, though not fo fierce a flame,
Is longer like to be the fame.
Then fmile on me, and I will prove,
Wonder is fhorter-liv'd than love.
On the Friendship betwixt SACHARISSA
and AMORE t.
ELL me, lovely lovely Pair!
Why fo kind, and so severe ?
Why fo careless of our care,
Only to your felves so dear?
By this cunning change of hearts,
You the pow'r of Love controul;
While the boy's deluded darts
Can arrive at neither foul.
For in vain to either breaft
Still beguiled Love does come : Where he finds a foreign gueft; Neither of your hearts at home. Debtors thus with like defign,
When they never mean to pay, That they may the law decline, To some friend make all away. Not the filver doves that fly,
Yoak'd in CYTHEREA's car;
Not the wings that lift so high;
And convey her son so far ;
Are fo lovely, fweet, and fair,
Or do more ennoble love;
Are fo choicely match'd a pair,
Or with more confent do move,
To AMOR E T.
AMORET, the Milkey Way,
Fram'd of many nameless stars!
The smooth stream, where none can say.
He this drop to that prefers!
AMORET, my lovely foe!
Tell me where thy ftrength does lye ;
Where the pow'r that charms us fo?
In thy foul, or in thy eye?
By that fnowy neck alone;
Or thy grace in motion feen
No fuch Wonders cou'd be done;
Yet thy waift is ftraight, and clean,
AS CUPID'S fhaft; or HERMES' rod:
And pow'rful too, as either God.
A LA MALADE.
H lovely AMORET, the care
Of all that know what's good, or fair!
Is heav'n became our rival too?
Had the rich gifts, confer'd on you
So amply thence, the common end
Of giving lovers,----to pretend?
Hence, to this pining ficknefs (meant
weary thee to a confent
Of leaving us) no pow'r is giv'n,
Thy beauties to impair for heav'n
Sollicits thee with fuch a care,
As rofes from their ftalks we tear:
When we would ftill preserve them new,
And fresh, as on the bufh they grew.
So fresh the wound is, and the grief so vaft,
That all our art, and pow'r of speech, is waste.
Here paffion fways, but there the mufe fhall raise
Eternal monuments of louder praise.
There our delight complying wirh her fame,
Shall have occasion to recite thy name,
Fair SACHARISSA !---and now only fair!
To facred friendship we'll an altar rear;
(Such as the ROMANS did erect of old.)
Where, on a marble pillar, fhall be told
The lovely paffion each to other bare,
With the refemblance of that matchless Pair.
NARCISSUS to the thing for which he pin'd
Was not more like, than yours to her fair mind;
Save that the grac'd the fev'ral parts of life,
A spotlefs virgin, and a faultlefs wife :
Such was the sweet converfe 'twixt her and
As that she holds with her affociates now.
How falfe is hope, and how gardless Fate,
That fuch a love fhould have so short a date!
Lately I faw her fighing part from thee:
(Alas that That the laft farewel fhould be!)
So look'd ASTRA A, her remove defign'd,
On those diftreffed friends the left behind.
Confent in virtue knit your hearts fo faft,
That ftill the knot, in fpight of death, does laft:
For, as your tears, and forrow-wounded foul,
Prove well that on your part this bond is whole :
So, all we know of what the do above,
Is, that they happy are and that they love,
Let dark oblivion, and the hollow grave,
Content themselves our frailer thoughts to have:
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