 | The Land of Love |  |
I should have dy'd silent, as Flow'rs decay,
Had not thy Friendship stopt me on the Way.
Friendship, which even Love's great Pow'r controls,
When this but touches, that exchanges Souls:
The Remedy of Grief, the safe Retreat
Of the scorn'd Lover, and declining Great;
This sacred Tye betwixt thy self and me,
Not to be alter'd by my Destiny;
This Tye, which equal to my new Desires,
Preserv'd it self amidst Love's softer Fires;
Obliges me (without Reserve) t'impart
To Lysidas the Story of my Heart;
Tho' 'twill increase its present Languishment,
To call to its Remembrance pass'd Content.
So Men, when drowning near the happy Shore,
Which they just left, but ne'er must visit more,
Look sighing back, and, from that sad Review,
Suffer more Pain, than in their Death they do.
That Grief which I in silent Calms have born,
It will renew, and raise into a Storm.
Had not thy Friendship stopt me on the Way.
Friendship, which even Love's great Pow'r controls,
When this but touches, that exchanges Souls:
The Remedy of Grief, the safe Retreat
Of the scorn'd Lover, and declining Great;
This sacred Tye betwixt thy self and me,
Not to be alter'd by my Destiny;
This Tye, which equal to my new Desires,
Preserv'd it self amidst Love's softer Fires;
4
To Lysidas the Story of my Heart;
Tho' 'twill increase its present Languishment,
To call to its Remembrance pass'd Content.
So Men, when drowning near the happy Shore,
Which they just left, but ne'er must visit more,
Look sighing back, and, from that sad Review,
Suffer more Pain, than in their Death they do.
That Grief which I in silent Calms have born,
It will renew, and raise into a Storm.
| The Land of Love | |