On LOVE.

Victorious Love, thou sacred mystery!
What muse in mortal strains can speak of thee?
We feel th' effect, and own thy force divine,
But vainly would the glorious cause define.
In part, thy pow'r in these cold realms is known;
But in the blest celestial seats alone,
Thy triumphs in their splendid heights are shown.
Thy gentle torch, with a propitious light
And spotless flame, burns there for ever bright.
Expressless pleasure, and transporting grace,

SERAPHIC LOVE.

[I.]

Thou beauty's vast abyss, abstract of all
My thoughts can lovely, great, or splendid call;
To thee in heav'nly flames, and pure desires,
My ravish'd soul impatiently aspires.

II.

With admiration, praise, and endless love,
Thou fill'st the wide resplendent worlds above;
And none can rival, or with thee compare,
Of all the bright intelligences there.

III.

What vapours then, what short-liv'd glories be
The fairest idols of our sense to thee?

LOVE and FRIENDSHIP: A PASTORAL.

AMARYLLIS.

While from the skies the ruddy sun descends;
And rising night the ev'ning shade extends:
While pearly dews o'erspread the fruitful field;
And closing flowers reviving odours yield;
Let us, beneath these spreading trees, recite
What from our hearts our muses may indite.
Nor need we, in this close retirement, fear,
Least any swain our am'rous secrets hear.

SYLVIA.

A SONG .

When Autumn's chilly winds complain
And red leaves withered fall,
We know that Spring will laugh again,
And leaf and flower recall.

But when Love's saddening Autumn wears
The hues that death presage,
No Spring in Winter's lap prepares
A second Golden Age.

So when Life's Autumn sadly sighs,
Yet smiles its cold tears through,
No Spring, with warm and sunny skies,

" Never let it out! "
was his vow to me
back then,
but what will happen now?
For with all that
in his heart
still his feelings

Ah, the futility
of putting trust
in pledges
that turn out to be lies!
And less reason
is there to wait
on an evening
never promised.

PARAPHRASE

On Joh. 3.16 — For God so loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son, &c.

I.

Yes; so God loved the World; But where
Are this Great Loves Dimensions?
Even Angels stop; for, baffled here
Are their vast Apprehensions.
In vain they strive to Grasp the boundless thing;
Not all their Comments can explain the mighty Truth I sing.

II.

Yet still they pause on the Contents
Of this Amazing Story;

Search all the Sonnets set Loue wealth to wynne,
And you shall see (how euer darkly donne)
That lightly with the Eye they do begin
As if Loues heate, and Witts , came from that Sunne
And I, as if the Eye bewitched mee,
Oft sett my Sonetts Seane iust in the Eye
Of beaming Beauty , that it, so, may see
Wherein consists Loues Comick Tragedie.
Thus is the Sences Sou'raigne Subiect , made
Loues Sonetts Subiect, in faire Paper- Reames ,
Sith with Loues fire it doth the Hart inuade:
For, that cold Christall burnes with Beauties Beames

As the sky brightens,
in gaps
between the clouds — stars,
shining faintly through,
as few in number
as visits
from the one
who pledged his love.

It makes no sense!
— to get entangled
again
after so much time!
In the air,
the dangling end
of a broken
spider's thread.