LUCASIA, ROSANIA, AND ORINDA PARTING AT A FOUNTAIN by KATHERINE PHILIPS

I

Here, here are our enjoyments done,
And since the Love and grief we weare
Forbids us either word or teare,
And Art wants here expression,
See Nature furnish us with one.

II

The kind and mournfull Nimph which here
Inhabits in her humble Cells,
No longer her own Sorrow tells,
Nor for it now concern'd appears,
But for our parting sheds these tears.

III

Unless she may afflicted be,
Least we should doubt her Innocence;
Since she hath lost her best pretence
Unto a matchless purity;
Our love being clearer far than she.

IV

Cold as the streams that from her flow,
Or (if her privater recess
A greater coldness can express)
Then cold as those dark beds of snow
Our hearts are at this parting blow.

V

But Time, that has both wings and feet,
Our suffering Minutes being Spent,
Will visit us with new content;
And sure, if kindness be so sweet
'Tis harder to forget then meet.

VI

Then though the sad Adieu we say,
Yet as the wine we hither bring,
Revives, and then exalts the Spring;
So let our hopes to meet allay,
The fears and Sorrows of this day.

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