Love with a liquid ecstasy
Did wholly fill me up,
And since his drink is sweet to me
Can I despise his cup?

His lips are open, since his mind
Delights in work his fingers find.
In that red arch I see a gate,
Where gracious Loves might pass in state.
Sure his white body were fit habitation
For a whole fairy population.

In the Lemnian Forge of late
Vulcan making Arrows sate;
Whilst with Honey their barb'd points
Venus , Love with Gall anoints:
Armed Mars by chance comes there,
Brandishing a sturdy Spear,
And in scorn the little shaft
Offring to take up, he laught:
This (saith Love) which thou dost slight
Is not (if thou try it) light;
Up Mars takes it, Venus smil'd;
But He (sighing) to the Child
Take it, cries, its weight I feel;
Nay (sayes Love) e'en keep it still.

This the figure is of Jove ,
To a Bull transform'd by Love,
On whose back the Tyrian Maid
Through the Surges was convaid:
See how swiftly he the wide
Sea doth with strong hoofs divide;
He (and he alone) could swim,
None o'th'Heard ere follow'd him.

If she could take two types of man,
Man that she loves, and man that she desires,
And fuse them in a magic pan,
Over the holy fires,
She might by Sorcery discover
A perfect Lover.

But she must build her Paradise above her,
Inherit Heaven after she is old,
For she can find no pleasant Love to love her,
The world is void of pleasure, and death-cold.

You wish, O master of my destiny,
That I control myself!
'Twere better you ruled me.
For if I rule myself, I smile at you, and hate.
If you rule me, I love you though I curse, O mate!

Thou gracious dweller of the woodland green,
Companion ever of the April flowers,
And living breath of mother Venus's heart,
O gentle zephyr! —

If thou dost know the sorrows of my love, —
Thou that dost bear afar my sad lament, —
Hear me and frankly say to her I love
That here I perish!

Filis, who once my bitter yearnings knew,
Filis, who once my bitter yearnings wept,
Once did she love me, but, alas, I fear,
I fear her anger!

So do the gods with their paternal breasts,
So do the heavens with all their hearts benign

Gentle Swallow, thou we know
Every year dost come and go,
In the Spring thy nest thou mak'st;
In the Winter it forsak'st,
And divert'st thy self awhile
Near the Memphian Towers, or Nile ;
But Love in my suff'ring breast
Builds, and never quits his nest;
First one Love's hatcht; when that flies,
In the shell another lies;
Then a third is half expos'd;
Then a whole brood is disclos'd,
Which for meat still peeping cry,
Whilst the others that can fly
Do their callow brethren feed,
And grown up, they young ones breed.

If thou dost the number know
Of the Leaves on every Bough,
If thou canst the reck'ning keep
Of the Sands within the Deep;
Thee of all men will I take,
And my Loves Accomptant make.
Of Athenians first a score
Set me down; then fifteen more:
Adde a Regiment to these
Of Corinthian Mistresses;
For the most renown'd for fair
In Achaea , sojourn there;
Next our Lesbian beauties tell;
Those that in Ionia dwell;
Those of Rhodes and Caria count;
To two thousand they amount.
Wonder'st thou I love so many?
'Lass of Syria we not any,

I'am not moved to love Thee, O my Lord,
By any longing for Thy Promised Land;
Nor by the fear of hell am I unmanned
To cease from my transgressing deed or word.
'Tis Thou Thyself dost move me, — Thy blood poured
Upon the cross from nailed foot and hand;
And all the wounds that did Thy body brand;
And all Thy shame and bitter death's award.

Yea, to Thy heart am I so deeply stirred
That I would love Thee were no heaven on high, —
That I would fear, were hell a tale absurd!
Such my desire, all questioning grows vain;