And shee, in her owne destiny diuining,
Threw in herselfe, to saue herselfe by drowning;
The Well of Nectar, pau’d with pearle and gold,
Where shee remaines for all eyes to behold.
Amour 10
Oft taking pen in hand, with
words to cast my woes,
Beginning to account the sum
of all my cares,
I well perceiue my griefe
innumerable growes,
And still in reckonings rise
more millions of dispayres.
And thus, deuiding of my fatall
howres,
The payments of my loue I
read, and reading crosse,
And in substracting set my
sweets vnto my sowres;
Th’ average of my ioyes
directs me to my losse.
And thus mine eyes, a debtor
to thine eye,
Who by extortion gaineth all
theyr lookes,
My hart hath payd such grieuous
vsury,
That all her wealth lyes in
thy Beauties bookes;
And all is thine
which hath been due to mee,
And I a Banckrupt,
quite vndone by thee.
Amour 11
Thine eyes taught mee the
Alphabet of loue,
To con my Cros-rowe ere I
learn’d to spell;
For I was apt, a scholler
like to proue,
Gaue mee sweet lookes when
as I learned well.
Vowes were my vowels, when
I then begun
At my first Lesson in thy
sacred name:
My consonants the next when
I had done,
Words consonant, and sounding
to thy fame.
My liquids then were liquid
christall teares,
My cares my mutes, so mute
to craue reliefe;
My dolefull Dypthongs were
my liues dispaires,
Redoubling sighes the accents
of my griefe:
My loues Schoole-mistris
now hath taught me so,
That I can read
a story of my woe.
Amour 12
Some Atheist or vile Infidell
in loue,
When I doe speake of thy diuinitie,
May blaspheme thus, and say
I flatter thee,
And onely write my skill in
verse to proue.
See myracles, ye vnbeleeuing!
see
A dumbe-born Muse made to
expresse the mind,
A cripple hand to write, yet
lame by kind,
One by thy name, the other
touching thee.
Blind were mine eyes, till
they were seene of thine,
And mine eares deafe by thy
fame healed be;
My vices cur’d by vertues
sprung from thee,
My hopes reuiu’d, which
long in graue had lyne:
All vncleane thoughts,
foule spirits, cast out in mee
By thy great power,
and by strong fayth in thee.
Amour 13
Cleere Ankor, on whose
siluer-sanded shore
My soule-shrinde Saint, my
faire Idea, lyes;
O blessed Brooke! whose milk-white
Swans adore
The christall streame refined
by her eyes:
Where sweet Myrh-breathing
Zephyre in the spring
Gently distils his Nectar-dropping