Amanda A Sacrifice To an Unknown Goddesse, or, A Free-Will Offering Of a loving Heart to a Sweet-Heart. By N. H. [i.e. Nicholas Hookes] |
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To Amanda doubting her mortality.
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To Amanda doubting her mortality.
I cannot be an Atheist in my love;
And as the dull Cretenses did for Jove,
Build thee a Sepulchre, no, goddesse, no;
I nee're shall weeping to thy grave-stone go,
And beg thy lovely ghost, to represent
To one short glance thy beautie's monument;
Nor haunt the melancholy tombes, to try
If my strong fancie can possesse my eye,
With a blest shadow, like to thee my Faire,
Drawing thy portraicture and shape i'th' aire;
Then gaze and wonder till my soul desert
Its trembling dust, and where thou never wert,
Flie t' an imbrace; then look so long about,
To finde my fancies vanish't Consort out;
Till my unruly Atomes dispossesse
The Agent spirits of their Governesse;
And me to marble feare do petrifie,
Leaving my hand to write thy Elegie:
And as the dull Cretenses did for Jove,
Build thee a Sepulchre, no, goddesse, no;
I nee're shall weeping to thy grave-stone go,
And beg thy lovely ghost, to represent
To one short glance thy beautie's monument;
Nor haunt the melancholy tombes, to try
If my strong fancie can possesse my eye,
With a blest shadow, like to thee my Faire,
Drawing thy portraicture and shape i'th' aire;
Then gaze and wonder till my soul desert
Its trembling dust, and where thou never wert,
Flie t' an imbrace; then look so long about,
To finde my fancies vanish't Consort out;
Till my unruly Atomes dispossesse
The Agent spirits of their Governesse;
And me to marble feare do petrifie,
Leaving my hand to write thy Elegie:
No, these are dreams fit for an Infidel,
Whose saucie reason doth 'gainst faith rebel;
I'm better taught, and with an Eagles eye,
Admit the rayes of thy Divinity;
Diana bathes her in the purer Springs
Of thy chaste blood; and when Amanda sings,
My greedy eares let chanting Angels in,
And each notes Eccho calls thee Cherubin:
Even at noon, thy blushing modestie
Calls up Aurora; Canst thou mortal be?
Then Venus and the graces too must die,
For they're confin'd, and live within thine eye.
Whose saucie reason doth 'gainst faith rebel;
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Admit the rayes of thy Divinity;
Diana bathes her in the purer Springs
Of thy chaste blood; and when Amanda sings,
My greedy eares let chanting Angels in,
And each notes Eccho calls thee Cherubin:
Even at noon, thy blushing modestie
Calls up Aurora; Canst thou mortal be?
Then Venus and the graces too must die,
For they're confin'd, and live within thine eye.
| Amanda | |