 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
Cælia's Fall.
I
Cælia , my fairest Cælia, fell,Cælia, than the fairest, fairer,
Cælia, (with none I must compare her)
That all alone is all in all,
Of what we fair, and modest call,
Cælia, white as Alabaster,
Cælia, than Diana chaster,
This fair, fair Cælia, greif to tell,
This fair, this modest, chast one fell.
401
II
My Cælia, sweetest Cælia, fell,As I have seen a Snow-white Dove
Decline her Bosom from above,
And down her spotless body fling.
Without the motion of the wing,
Till she arrest her seeming fall
Upon some happy Pedestal:
So soft this sweet, I love so well,
This sweet, this Dove-like Cælia, fell.
III
Cælia, my dearest Cælia fell,As I have seen a melting Star
Drop down its fire from its Sphear,
Rescuing so its glorious sight
From that paler snuff of light:
Yet is a Star bright and entire,
As when 'twas wrap't in all that fire:
So bright this dear, I love so well,
This dear, this Star-like Cælia fell.
402
IV
And yet my Cælia did not fallAs grosser Earthly Mortals do,
But stoop't, like Phæbus, to renew
Her lustre hy her Morning rise,
And dart new Beauties in the Skies.
Like a white Dove, she took her flight,
And, like a Star, she shot her Light;
This Dove, this Star, so lov'd of all,
My Fair, Dear, Sweetest, did not fall.
V
But, if you'll say my Cælia fell,Of this I'm sure, that, like the Dart
Of Love it was, and on my Heart;
Poor Heart alas! wounded before,
She needed not have hurt it more:
So absolute a Conquest she
Had gain'd before of it, and me,
That neither of us have been well
Before, or since my Cælia fell.
| Poems on Several Occasions | |