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The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley

Consisting of Those which were formerly Printed: And Those which he Design'd for the Press, Now Published out of the Authors Original Copies ... The Text Edited by A. R. Waller
Cowley, Abraham (1618-1667)

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Miscellanies.
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THE MISTRESS:
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Pindarique ODES,
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Davideis,
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Verses written on several occasions.

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Love and Life.

1

Now sure, within this twelve-month past,
I' have lov'd at least some twenty years or more:
The account of Love runs much more fast
Than that, with which our Life does score:
So though my Life be short, yet I may prove
The great Methusalem of Love.

2

Not that Loves Hours or Minutes are
Shorter than those our Being's measur'ed by:
But they're more close compacted far,
And so in lesser room do lye.
Thin airy things extend themselves in space,
Things solid take up little place.
92

3

Yet Love, alas, and Life in Me,
Are not two several things, but purely one,
At once how can there in it be
A double different Motion?
O yes, there may: for so the self same Sun,
At once does slow and swiftly run.

4

Swiftly his daily journey 'he goes,
But treads his Annual with a statelier pace,
And does three hundred Rounds enclose
Within one yearly Circles space.
At once with double course in the same Sphære,
He runs the Day, and Walks the year.

5

When Soul does to my self refer,
'Tis then my Life, and does but slowly move;
But when it does relate to her,
It swiftly flies, and then is Love.
Love's my Diurnal course, divided right
'Twixt Hope and Fear, my Day and Night.
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