Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PLATONIC [OR, PLATONICK] LOVE (2), by EDWARD HERBERT



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PLATONIC [OR, PLATONICK] LOVE (2), by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Madam, believe't, love is not such a toy
Last Line: Have their contents they in each other find.
Alternate Author Name(s): Cherbury, 1st Baron Herbert Of; Herbert Of Cherbury, Edward Herbert, 1st Baron; Herbert Of Cherbury, Lord
Subject(s): Love - Nature Of


MADAM, believe 't, love is not such a toy
As it is sport but for the idle boy
Or wanton youth, since it can entertain
Our serious thoughts, and make us know how vain
All time is spent we do not thus employ.

For though strong passion oft on youth doth seize,
It is not yet affection, but disease
Caus'd from repletion, which their blood doth vex,
So that they love not woman but the sex,
And care no more than how themselves to please.

Whereas true lovers check that appetite
Which would presume further than to invite
The soul unto that part it ought to take,
When that from this address it would but make
Some introduction only to delight.

For while they from the outward sense transplant
The love grew there in earthly mould, and scant,
To the soul's spacious and immortal field,
They spring a love eternal, which will yield
All that a pure affection can grant.

Besides, what time or distance might effect
Is thus remov'd, while they themselves connect
So far above all change as to exclude
Not only all which might their sense delude,
But mind to any object else affect.

Nor will the proof of constancy be hard,
When they have plac'd upon their mind that guard,
As no ignoble thought can enter there,
And love doth such a virtue persevere,
And in itself so find a just reward.

And thus a love made from a worthy choice
Will to that union come, as but one voice
Shall speak, one thought but think the other's will,
And while, but frailty, they can know no ill,
Their souls more than their bodies must rejoice.

In which estate nothing can so fulfil
Those heights of pleasure which their souls instil
Into each other, but that love thence draws
New arguments of joy, while the same cause
That makes them happy makes them greater still.

So that, however multipli'd and vast
Their love increase, they will not think it past
The bounds of growth till their exalted fire,
B'ing equally enlarg'd with their desire,
Transform and fix them to one star at last.

Or when that otherwise they were inclin'd
Unto those public joys which are assign'd
To blessed souls when they depart from hence,
They would, besides what heaven doth dispense,
Have their contents they in each other find.





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