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THE CHANGE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Love in her sunny eyes does basking play
Last Line: My outside woman, and your inside man.
Variant Title(s): Cruel Beauty;without And Within
Subject(s): Love


1.
LOVE in her sunny eyes doth basking play;
Love walks the pleasant mazes of her hair;
Love does on both her lips for ever stray,
And sows and reaps a thousand kisses there:
In all her outward parts Love's always seen;
But oh! he never went within.
2.
Within Love's foes, his greatest foes abide,
Malice, Inconstancy and Pride.
So the Earth's face, Trees, Herbs, and Flow'rs do dresse,
With other beauties numberlesse;
But at the Center, Darknesse is, and Hell;
There wicked Spirits, and there the Damned dwell.
3.
With me, alas, quite contrary it fares;
Darknesse and Death lies in my weeping eyes,
Despair and Palenesse in my face appears.
And Grief and Fear, Love's greatest enemies;
But, like the Persian Tyrant, Love within
Keeps his proud Court, and ne'er is seen.
4.
Oh take my Heart, and by that means you'll prove
Within too stor'd enough of Love:
Give me but Your's, I'll by that chance so thrive,
That Love in all my parts shall live.
So powerfull is this change, it render can
My outside Woman, and your inside Man.




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