Occasional Verses of Edward Lord Herbert, Baron of Cherbery and Castle-Island ::

If you do love, as well as I,
Then every minute from your heart
A thought doth part:
And winged with desire doth fly
Till it hath met in a streight line,
A thought of mine
So like to yours, we cannot know
Whether of both doth come or go,
Till we define
Which of us two that thought doth ow.

2

I say then, that your thoughts which pass,
Are not so much the thoughts you meant,
As those I sent:
For as my image in a Glass
Belongs not to the Glass you see,
But unto me.
So when your fancy is so clear,
That you would think you saw me there,
It needs must be,
That it was I did first appear.

3

Likewise when I send forth a thought,
My reason tells me, 'tis the same,
Which from you came,

And which your beauteous Image wrought;
Thus while our thoughts by turns do lead
None can precede;
And thus while in each others mind
Such interchanged forms we find,
Our loves may plead
To be of more then vulgar kind.

4

May you then often think on me,
And by that thinking know 'tis true
I thought on you:
I in the same belief will be,
While by this mutual address
We will possess
A love must live, when we do dy,
Which rare and secret property
You will confess,
If you do love as well as I.

University of Virginia Library

The Thought.

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