romantic poems

In its deep essence, genius means but worth;
For who would paint the various qualities
Of man and nature, trace their growth and birth,
Must make their being his by sympathies,
Whose root is love. Thus, genius in the bad
Is still the reflex of a better life
There lingering, though with splendour shorn and sad.
Love draws the circle of imagination,
And in the heart's full day the wide creation
Lies clear, in beauty garb'd, with meaning rife;
And as love's sun declines, so fancy's ken

I.

Be Friend or Foe,
More Kindness show,
Or show me yet more kind Disdain;
 Your Torturing Indifference,
  Worse than your Scorn,
  Is to be born,
 My Passion does to Rage Incense;
To make us, of your Mercy, more complain,
When constant Cruelty wou'd end our Pain:

II.

  If I must Die,
  Kill suddenly,
If Sentence on my Life must pass;
 I, by more Grief, more Ease shall gain,
  Dispatch in Love,
  As Death will prove,
 But much more Pity, as more Pain;

Where is thy home, love? Where bright skies are flinging
Rich, mellow light over tropical bowers,
Where glad birds of beautiful plumage are singing
And butterflies wooing the odorous flowers;
Where the soft south wind strays,
And palm leaves quiver,
Through the long pleasant days,
By some bright river —
Is thy home there?

Where is thy home, love? Where true men are braving
Danger and death on the red battle-plain;
Where, in the cannon's smoke, banners are waving,
And the wild war-horse is trampling the slain;

I.

Why still, such Swearing, Fawning, Lying,
Talking of Killing, and no Dying?
Looking so sad, her Smiles to gain,
Thinking her Pity more to move,
More to compel her to Disdain,
And gain her Scorn instead of Love:

II.

With sensless Speeches, scurvy Faces,
To get a Proud, Young Maid's good Graces;
Like Beggars you, by th' Canting Tone,
With which you'd gain her Charity,
Provoke her more, to show you none,
And make your Pray'r her Grant deny:

III.

My Love and Wit, at once to show,
Verse, without Gold, I send you now;
He can't be, for a Wit allow'd
Who, with his Gold, with which he wou'd
Make his Dame Humble, makes her Proud;
Makes her more Rich, himself more Poor,
To make her scorn his Love yet more;
Then, with our Gold, or Gems, to part,
To gain a Mistress's Proud Heart,
Wou'd our Design on her prevent,
So prove our Wit's Disparagement;
By what we'd make our Dame more sure,
More Rivals in her to procure;
Make her the greater Fortune so,

With me, Dear Celia , do not thou find fau't,
For Jealousie, by which, I've only thought
Worse of my self, as better still of thee,
Who think thee but too great a Good, to be
Engross'd still, by so mean a Wretch as me;
Who, but less shou'd, my Value for you prove,
To think I were the sole, who thee cou'd Love,
Or th' only, who cou'd thee, to Liking move;
Since my Love, more sure, wou'd wrong thine, and thee,
To think, none else cou'd Love thee well, but me;
And if that others Love you, as I do,

Say not, my Love, I do not to thee prove,
Because I give thee nothing for thy Love;
That thou most undervalued art by me,
Because, I ne'er a Bargain made for thee;
I ne'er ('tis true,) prophan'd thy Love with Hire,
Because, bought Slaves, and Beggars, none admire;
I, like a Deity, have treated thee,
Pray'rs, Tears, Vows, Faith, thou long hast had from me,
Honour, Devotion, Adoration too,
Which more my Love does, than my Money show;
Money, but Love's Disparagement wou'd prove,
I gave thee nothing, more to prove my Love;

Star , whose fair light doth more and more excel
As light grows dimmer; but at birth of sun,
O'ertaken by the flame thou didst forerun,
Fadest as things obscure grow visible:
Men call thee Star of Love, and name thee well,
Thinking on tenderness of Love begun
'Neath throbbing Hesper, or in dawn undone
At beckoning Phosphor's sign inexorable.
And light of Love is like the light of thee,
Paired not with peer among the immortal host,
Or partner with a less transcendent flame;
Brightest when all around him darkens most,

To him, who symbol of his empire shows
By the inverted brand's declining flame,
Love, spent with wayfaring, in twilight came,
And said, I weary, and would taste repose.
Do thou, whose vigilant eye must never close,
Governing thy viewless shafts' incessant aim,
Guard me, and from thy brother's realm reclaim
When bathed in orient light my planet throes.
And so it was, Love slumbered and arose,
But, parting, bore his comrade's torch away;
Soon in Death's numbing hand his own expired:
Now earth is empty of his joys and woes,

I.

If I must die, for, or by thee,
To Love, or Rage, my Life resign;
No matter which way 'tis to be,
By your own Passion, or by mine:

II.

Since you cause me to die for Love,
Your fiercest Rage, can do no more;
Your Anger, my Relief wou'd prove,
Put me, by Death, out of your Pow'r;

III.

Out of your Pow'r, out of my Pain,
By your kind Hatred, shou'd I be,