To this moment a rebel, I throw down my arms, Great Love! at first sight of Olinda's bright charms. Made proud and secure by such forces as these, You may now be a tyrant as soon as you please. When innocence, beauty, and wit do conspire To betray, and engage, and inflame my desire, Why should I decline what I cannot avoid, And let pleasing hope by base fear be destroyed? Her innocence cannot contrive to undo me; Her beauty's inclined, or why should it pursue me? And wit has to pleasure been ever a friend; Then what room for despair, since delight is love's end? There can be no danger in sweetness and youth Where love is secured by good nature and truth. On her beauty I'll gaze, and of pleasure complain, While every kind look adds a link to my chain. 'Tis more to maintain than it was to surprise, But her wit leads in triumph the slave of her eyes. I beheld with the loss of my freedom before, But, hearing, forever must serve and adore. Too bright is my goddess, her temple too weak. Retire, divine image! I feel my heart break. Help, Love! I dissolve in a rapture of charms At the thought of those joys I should meet in her arms. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ANDREA DEL SARTO (CALLED THE FAULTLESS PAINTER) by ROBERT BROWNING SECOND BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 18 by THOMAS CAMPION THE MARTYRS OF THE MAINE by RUPERT HUGHES STRANGE MEETING by WILFRED OWEN JIM DALLEY by ALEXANDER ANDERSON |