The last remains of Sr John Suckling Being a Full collection Of all his Poems and Letters which have been so long expected, and never till now Published, with The Licence and Approbation of his Noble and Dearest friends |
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The guiltless Inconstant.
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 | The last remains of Sr John Suckling |  |
The guiltless Inconstant.
My first Love whom all beauties did adorn,Firing my heart, supprest it with her scorn;
Since like the tinder in my breast it lies,
By every sparkle made a sacrifice.
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And that is free to all which was entire;
Desiring more by the desire I lost,
As those that in Consumptions linger most.
And now my wandring thoughts are not confin'd
Unto one woman, but to womankind:
This for her shape I love, that for her face,
This for her gesture, or some other grace:
And where that none of all these things I find,
I chuse her by the kernel, not the rind:
And so I hope since my first hope is gone,
To find in many what I lost in one;
And like to Merchants after some great loss
Trade by retail, that cannot do in gross.
The fault is hers that made me go astray,
He needs must wander that hath lost his way:
Guiltless I am; she doth this change provoke,
And made that Charcoal, which to her was Oak.
And as a Looking glass from the Aspect
Whilst it is whole, doth but one face reflect;
But being crackt or broken, there are grown
Many less faces, where there was but one:
So Love unto my heart did first prefer
Her image, and there placed none but her;
But since twas broke and martyr'd by her scorn,
Many less faces in her place are born.
J. S.
| The last remains of Sr John Suckling | |