Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NO PLATONIQUE LOVE, by WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT


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NO PLATONIQUE LOVE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tell me no more of minds embracing minds
Last Line: They only find a medicine for the itch.
Variant Title(s): No Platonic Love
Subject(s): Love


Tell me no more of minds embracing minds,
And hearts exchanged for hearts;
That spirits spirits meet, as winds do winds,
And mix their subtlest parts;
That two unbodied essences may kiss,
And then like angels, twist and feel one bliss.
I was that silly thing that once was wrought
To practise this thin love;
I climbed from sex to soul, from soul to thought;
But thinking there to move,
Headlong I rolled from thought to soul, and then
From soul I lighted at the sex again.
As some strict down-looked men pretend to fast,
Who yet in closets eat;
So lovers who profess they spirits taste,
Feed yet on grosser meat;
I know they boast they souls to souls convey,
Howe'er they meet, the body is the way.
Come, I will undeceive thee, they that tread
Those vain aerial ways,
Are like young heirs and alchemists misled
To waste their wealth and days,
For searching thus to be forever rich,
They only find a medicine for the itch.









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