38
How can my Muse want subject to invent, While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into myverseThine own sweet argument, too excellent For every vulgar paper to rehearse?O! give thyself the thanks, if aught in me Worthy perusal stand against thy sight; For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee, When thou thyself dost give invention light?Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth Than those old nine which rimers invocate;And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth Eternal numbers to outhve long date. If my slight Muse do please these curiousdays,The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise.
39
O! how thy worth with manners may I sing,When thou art all the better part of me?What can mine own praise to mine own selfbring?And what is't but mine own when I praise thee? Even for this let us divided live, And our dear love lose name of single one, That by this separation I may give That due to thee, which thou deserv'st alone. O absence! what a torment wouldst thou prove, Were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave To entertain the time with thoughts of love, Which time and thoughts so sweetly doth deceive,And that thou teachest how to make one twain,By praising him here who doth hence remain.
40
Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all;What hast thou then more than thou hadstbefore?No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call;All mine was thine before thou hadst this more Then, if for my love thou my love receivest, I cannot blame thee for my love thou usest; But yet be blam'd, if thou thyself deceivest By wilful taste of what thyself refusest. I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief, Although thou steal thee all my poverty;And yet, love knows it is a greater grief To bear love's wrong than hate's known injury. Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows, Kill me with spites; yet we must not be foes.
41
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits, When I am sometimes absent from thy heart, Thy beauty and thy years full well befits, For still temptation follows where thou art. Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won, Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assail'd; And when a woman woos, what woman's son Will sourly leave her till she have prevail'd? Ay me! but yet thou mightst my seat forbear, And chide thy beauty and thy straying youth, Who lead thee in their riot even there Where thou art forc'd to break a twofold truth;— Hers, by thy beauty tempting her to thee, Thine, by thy beauty being false to me.
42
That thou hast her, it is not all my grief, And yet it may be said I lov'd her dearly;That she hath thee, is of my wailing chief, A loss in love that touches me more nearly. Loving offenders, thus I will excuse ye:Thou dost love her, because thou know'st I loveher; And for my sake even so doth she abuse me, Suffering my friend for my sake to approve her. If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain, And losing her, my friend hath found that loss;Both find each other, and I lose both twain, And both for my sake lay on me this cross: But here's the joy; my friend and I are one;Sweet flattery! then she loves but me alone.
43
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see, For all the day they view things unrespected;But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee, And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed. Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth makebright, How would thy shadow's form form happy show To the clear day with thy much clearer light, When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so! How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made By looking on thee in the living day, When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay! All days are nights to see till I see thee, And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
44
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought, Injurious distance should not stop my way;For then, despite of space, I would be brought, From limits far remote, where thou dost stay. No matter then although my foot did stand Upon the furthest earth remov'd from thee; For nimble thought can jump both sea and land. As soon as think the place where he would be. But, ah! thought kills me that I am not thought, To leap large lengths of miles when thou artgone,But that, so much of earth and water wrought, I must attend time's leisure with my moan; Receiving nought by elements so slow But heavy tears, badges of either's woe.
45
The other two, slight air and purging fire, Are both with thee, wherever I abide;The first my thought, the other my desire,These present-absent with swift motion slide.For when these quicker elements are goneIn tender embassy of love to thee, My life, being made of four, with two aloneSinks down to death, oppress'd with melancholy;Until life's composition be recur'd By those sweet messengers return'd from thee, Who even but now come back again, assur'd Of thy fair health, recounting it to me: This told, I joy; but then no longer glad, I send them back again, and straight grow sad.
46
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war, How to divide the conquest of thy sight;Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight wouldbar,My heart mine eye the freedom of that right. My heart doth plead that thou in him dostlie,-A closet never pierc'd with crystal eyes,— But the defendant doth that plea deny, And says in him thy fair appearance lies. To 'cide this title is impannelled A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart;And by their verdict is determined The clear eye's moiety and the dear heart'spart: As thus; mine eye's due is thine outward part, And my heart's right thine inward love of heart.
47
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took, And each doth good turns now unto the other:When that mine eye is famish'd for a look, Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smo- ther,With my love's picture then my eye doth feast, And to the painted banquet bids my heart; Another time mine eye is my heart's guest, And in his thoughts of love doth share a part:So, either by thy picture or my love, Thyself away art present still with me;For thou not further than my thoughts canstmove, And I am still with them and they with thee;Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight Awakes my heart to heart's and eye's delight.
48
How careful was I when I took my way,Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,That to my use it might unused stayFrom hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust!But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief, Thou, best of dearest and mine only care,Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.Thee have I not lock'd up in any chest,Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art,Within the gentle closure of my breast,From whence at pleasure thou mayst come andpart; And even thence thou wilt be stol'n, I fear, For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.
49
Against that time, if ever that time come, When I shall see thee frown on my defects, When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum, Call'd to that audit by advis'd respects;Against that time when thou shalt strangelypass, And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye, When love, converted from the thing it was, Shall reasons find of settled gravity;Against that time do I ensconce me here Within the knowledge of mine own desert, And this my hand against myself uprear, To guard the lawful reasons on thy part: To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,Since why to love I can allege no cause.
50
How heavy do I journey on the way, When what I seek, my weary travel's end, Doth teach that ease and that repose to say, 'Thus far the miles are measur'd from thyfriend!'The beast that bears me, tired with my woe, Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me, As if by some instinct the wretch did know His rider lov'd not speed, being made from thee:The bloody spur cannot provoke him on That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide, Which heavily he answers with a groan More sharp to me than spurring to his side; For that same groan doth put this in my mind:My grief lies onward, and my joy behind.