I CEASE t' exaggerate your anguish, Ye, who for the gout complain! Lovers, that in absence languish, Only know, indeed, what's pain. II If the choice were in my power, Sooner much the rack I'd choose, Than, for th' short space of an hour, My dear Stella's sight to lose. III Sometimes fear, sometimes desire, Seize (by cruel turns) my heart; Now a frost, and then a fire ('Las!) I feel in every part. IV Horrid change of pains! O leave me, With my death else end your spight! Absence doth as much bereave me As death can, of her lov'd sight. V Thus (dear Stella) thy poor lover His unlucky fate bemoans; Whilst his parting soul does hover 'Bout his lips: wing'd by sad groans. VI Yet thou may'st from death reprive him; Love such power to Stella gives: With thy sight thou canst revive him; As thou wilt he dies, or lives. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ARIZONA POEMS: 6. RAIN IN THE DESERT by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER OPEN, TIME by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH by WILFRED OWEN STELLA'S BIRTHDAY, 1726-7 by JONATHAN SWIFT THE FUNERAL TREE OF THE SOKOKIS by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER A WOMAN'S APOLOGY by ALFRED AUSTIN |