Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PLATONIC [OR, PLATONICK] LOVE (2), by EDWARD HERBERT 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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RESCUE THE DEAD by DAVID IGNATOW BUTTERFLIES UNDER PERSIMMON by MARK JARMAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 27 by JAMES JOYCE CHAMBER MUSIC: 28 by JAMES JOYCE CHAMBER MUSIC: 30 by JAMES JOYCE HE WHO KNOWS LOVE by ELSA BARKER LOVE'S HUMBLENESS by ELSA BARKER SONG (IN THE LUCKY CHANCE) by APHRA BEHN AN ODE UPON A QUESTION WHETHER LOVE SHOULD CONTINUE FOREVER by EDWARD HERBERT DITTY IN IMITATION OF THE SPANISH: ENTRE TANTO QUE L'AVRIL by EDWARD HERBERT EPITAPH FOR SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, AT ST. PAUL'S WITHOUT A MONUMENT ... by EDWARD HERBERT |
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