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The poems of William Habington

Edited with introduction and commentary by Kenneth Allott

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To CASTARA.
  
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97

To CASTARA.

What Lovers will say when she and he are dead.

I wonder when w'are dead, what men will say;
Will not poore Orphan Lovers weepe,
The parents of their Loves decay;
And envy death the treasure of our sleepe?
Will not each trembling Virgin bring her feares
To th' holy silence of my Vrne?
And chide the Marble with her teares,
'Cause she so soone faith's obsequie must mourne.
For had Fate spar'd but Araphill (she'le say)
He had the great example stood,
And forc't unconstant man obey
The law of Loves Religion, not of blood.
And youth by female perjury betraid,
Will to Castara's shrine deplore
His injuries, and death obrayd,
That woman lives more guilty, then before.
For while thy breathing purified the ayre
Thy Sex (hee'le say) did onely move
By the chaste influence of a faire,
Whose vertue shin'd in the bright orbe of love.
Now woman, like a Meteor vapor'd forth
From dunghills, doth amaze our eyes;
Not shining with a reall worth,
But subtile her blacke errors to disguise.
Thus will they talke, Castara, while our dust
In one darke vault shall mingled be.
The world will fall a prey to lust,
When Love is dead, which hath one fate with me.