Only for admonition: so when she

Gives ear to him, at least she'll think of me.

TO CHLOE.

WHO WISHED HERSELF YOUNG ENOUGH FOR ME.

Chloe, why wish you that your years

Would backwards run, till they meet mine?

That perfect likeness, which endears

Things unto things, might us combine?

Our ages so in date agree,

That twins do differ more than we,

There are two births, the one when light

First strikes the new-awakened sense;

The other when two souls unite;

And we must count our life from thence: When you loved me, and I loved you, Then both of us were born anew.

Love then to us did new souls give,

And in those souls did plant new powers;

Since when another life we live,

The breath we breathe is his, not ours: Love makes those young, whom age doth chill, And whom he finds young, keeps young still.

Love, like that angel that shall call

Our bodies from the silent grave,

Unto one age doth raise us all,

None too much, none too little have;

Nay, that the difference may be none,

He makes two not alike, but one.

And now since you and I are such,

Tell me what's yours, and what is mine?

Our eyes, our ears, our taste, smell, touch,
Do (like our souls) in one combine:

So by this, I as well may be

Too old for you, as you for me.

A VALEDICTION.

Bid me not go where neither suns nor showers
Do make or cherish flowers;

Where discontented things in sadness lie,
And Nature grieves as I;

When I am parted from those eyes,
From which my better day doth rise,
Though some propitious power
Should plant me in a bower,

Where amongst happy lovers I might see
How showers and sunbeams bring

One everlasting spring,

Nor would those fall, nor these shine forth to me:

Nature herself to him is lost,

Who loseth her he honours most.

Then fairest to my parting view display

Your graces all in one full day;

Whose blesséd shapes I'll snatch and keep, till when

I do return and view agen :

So by this art fancy shall fortune cross,

And lovers live by thinking on their loss.

JAMES SHIRLEY.

1594-1666.

["Poems." 1646.]

TO ODELIA.

HEALTH to my fair Odelia! Some that know
How many months are past

Since I beheld thy lovely brow,
Would count an age at least ;
But unto me,

Whose thoughts are still on thee,
I vow

By thy black eyes, 'tis but an hour ago.

That mistress I pronounce but poor in bliss, That, when her servant parts,

Gives not as much with her last kiss,

As will maintain two hearts

Till both do meet

To taste what else is sweet.

Is 't fit

Time measure love, or our affection it?

Cherish that heart, Odelia, that is mine,
And if the north thou fear,

Dispatch but from thy southern clime
A sigh, to warm thine here;

But be so kind

To send by the next wind;

"Tis far,

And many accidents do wait on war.

TAKING LEAVE WHEN HIS MISTRESS WAS TO RIDE.

How is it my ungentle fate,

When love commanded me to wait
Upon my saint, by break of day,
I brought a heart, but carried none away?

When we joined ceremonious breath, And lips, that took a leave like death, With a sad parting thought oppressed, Did it leave mine, to glide into her breast?

Or was it, when like Pallas she Was mounted, and I gazed to see, My heart then looking through mine eye, Did after her out of that window fly?

'Twas so, and 'cause I did not ride,
My heart would lackey by her side,
Or some more careful angel be,
To see my mistress safe conveyed for me.

Nay, then, attend thy charge, nor fear Storms in the way, and if a tear By chance, at looking back on thee Bedew her eye, drink that a health to me.

But smile at night, and be her guest,
At once her music and her feast,

And if at any mention made

Of me, she sigh, say all thy travail's paid.

But when she's gently laid to rest,

O listen softly to her breast,

And thou shalt hear her soul, but see Thou wake her not, for she may dream of me.

But what's all this, when I am here,
If fancy bid thee welcome there?
Heart! this last duty I implore,

Or bring her back, or see thy cell no more.

THE KISS.

I could endure your eye, although it shot
Lightning at first into me:

Your voice, although it charmed mine ear, had not
The power to undo me:

But, while I on your lip would dwell,

My ravished heart leaped from his cell,

For, looking back into my breast

I found that room without a guest.

Return the heart you stole thus with a kiss,
When last our lips did join;

Or I'll forgive the theft, to change a bliss,
And have your heart for mine.

I ne'er till now believed it truth;

That lovers' hearts were at their mouth ;
Now by experience I may say,

That men may kiss their hearts away.