The Resemblance

Yes , if 't were any common love,
That led my pliant heart astray,
I grant, there's not a power above
Could wipe the faithless crime away.

But, 't was my doom to err with one
In every look so like to thee
That, underneath yon blessed sun
So fair there are but thou and she

Both born of beauty, at a birth,
She held with thine a kindred sway,
And wore the only shape on earth
That could have lured my soul to stray.

Then blame me not, if false I be,
'T was love that waked the fond excess;

Love and Marriage

Eque brevi verbo ferre perenne maium.

S ECUNDUS , eleg. vil.

Still the question I must parry,
Still a wayward truant prove:
Where I love, I must not marry;
Where I marry, can not love.

Were she fairest of creation,
With the least presuming mind;
Learned without affectation;
Not deceitful, yet refined;

Wise enough, but never rigid;

Make Me a Lap

Back in those days ere I thought of love,
Kissing at games in a picnic grove,
Cried one lass as she made a spring:
" Make me a Lap! you stingy thing! "
Down in my lap sat the tired madcap
And in a snap she had " made her a Lap. "

Lissome, pliant, innocent vine,
Still to my heart I can feel her twine,
Trustfully as my kitten's play,
Light as the birds in that greenwood day;
Sweet as the sap in the fruit tree's tap,
Vine-like her wrap as I " made her a Lap. "

Country heart! there is no mishap, —

Jacob's Ladder

We are climbin' Jacob's ladder,
Soldier(s) of the cross.

Ev'ry round goes higher 'n' higher,
Soldier(s) of the cross.

Sinner ( or : brother), do you love my Jesus?
Soldier(s) of the cross.

Rise, shine, give God the glory,
Soldier(s) of the cross.

Another couplet:

If you love Him, why not serve Him?

Upon Love, in Imitation of Cowley

By Mr. Brown .

Whether we Mortals love or no,
'Tis the same Case whate'er we do.
For Love does killing Pleasure give,
And without Love 'tis Death to Live:
If then to love, so painful be,
And not to love be Misery,
What a sad Case must he be in,
Who has disgrac'd and jilted been?
Banish'd for ever from those Eyes,
Which conquer Fools, and fool the Wise,
And none but Stoicks can despise?
They conquer, but they will not yield,
Love knows no such unequal Field:

Thirsis and Daphne. A Poem

A Poem.

M Y muse of Thirsis sings, and of the shade,
Where he, poor shepherd, with his Daphne stray'd:
On D UNSMORE waste, there stands a shady grove,
The sweet recess of solitude and love;
Hazles on this, on that side elms are seen,
To shade the verdant path that leads between.
A rose, less lovely than young Thirsis gay,
Adorns the sprig that bends across the way;
The way that does with various flow'rs abound,
The gentle shepherd cast his eyes around;

Song — Duet — Between the Bard and an Old Woman Critic

The Bard

A H me! but I'm sorry,
And with worry I'm sore,
I am powerless to state
What my fate is each hour.
What but my heart's anguish
Makes me languish such wise?
With the love that I've loved her,
Ne'er above it I'll rise.

The Crone

Silence, rascal, deal fairly,
Untruths spare to exhale,
I will yet trust thee barely
That there's no gild-thy-tale.

Loving One I Never Saw

Thou tyrant God of Love, give o'er,
And persecute this breast no more:
Ah! tell me why must every dart
Be aim'd at my unhappy heart?
I never murmur'd or repin'd,
But patiently myself resign'd
To all the torments, which through thee
Have fell, alas! on wretched me:
But Oh! I can no more sustain
This long continued state of pain,
Though 'tis but fruitless to complain.
My heart, first soften'd by thy power,
Ne'er kept its liberty an hour:
So fond and easy was it grown,
Each nymph might call the fool her own:

Old Canal Song

Path driver, wind thy tender horn
When any vessel passes!
There's one we sometimes hail at morn,
Bright with her Captain's lassies;
Then sound this note, as Past we move
And break my flag above us!
How small the world before we love,
How great, with one to love us!

The tame canal is sometimes dull —
Not so when Polly meets me;
Her head and neck are beautiful,
With what an eye she greets me!
Wind all thy horn to tell my love
What echoes tell above us:
How dull the world before we love,

To a Lady, an Advocate for Marriage

If that the Favours greatest are which we
Confer most voluntary, frank, and free;
And if that Benefit we value most,
Which comes the easiest, or in Toil, or Cost,
That courteous Virgin most our Thanks demands,
Who on no Wedlock-Terms precisely stands:
And she who soonest, cheapest, grants her Love,
Does the most honourable Mistress prove:
Who nobly does on her Friend's Faith rely,
Without a Bargain, Bond, or previous Tye.

But Marriage makes the Mode of bart'ring Love

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - poems about love