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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AN ODE UPON A QUESTION WHETHER LOVE SHOULD CONTINUE FOREVER, by EDWARD HERBERT Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: Having interr'd her infant-birth Last Line: Their ravish'd spirits did possess. Alternate Author Name(s): Cherbury, 1st Baron Herbert Of; Herbert Of Cherbury, Edward Herbert, 1st Baron; Herbert Of Cherbury, Lord Variant Title(s): Ode Upon Question Moved: Whether Love Should Continue Ever Subject(s): Love - Nature Of; Stillbirth; Death - Childbirth | |||
Having interr'd her Infant-birth, The watry ground that late did mourn, Was strew'd with flow'rs for the return Of the wish'd Bridegroom of the earth. The well accorded Birds did sing Their hymns unto the pleasant time, And in a sweet consorted chime Did welcom in the chearful Spring. To which, soft whistles of the Wind, And warbling murmurs of a Brook, And vari'd notes of leaves that shook, An harmony of parts did bind. While doubling joy unto each other, All in so rare concent was shown, No happiness that came alone, Nor pleasure that was not another. When with a love none can express, That mutually happy pair, Melander and Celinda fair, The season with their loves did bless. Walking thus towards a pleasant Grove, Which did, it seem'd, in new delight The pleasures of the time unite, To give a triumph to their love, They stay'd at last, and on the Grass Reposed so, as o'er his breast She bow'd her gracious head to rest, Such a weight as no burden was. While over eithers compass'd waist Their folded arms were so compos'd, As if in straitest bonds inclos'd, They suffer'd for joys they did taste. Long their fixt eyes to Heaven bent, Unchanged, they did never move, As if so great and pure a love No Glass but it could represent. When with a sweet, though troubled look, She first brake silence, saying, Dear friend, O that our love might take no end, Or never had beginning took! I speak not this with a false heart, (Wherewith his hand she gently strain'd) Or that would change a love maintain'd With so much faith on either part. Nay, I protest, though Death with his Worst Counsel should divide us here, His terrors could not make me fear, To come where your lov'd presence is. Only if loves fire with the breath Of life be kindled, I doubt, With our last air 'twill be breath'd out, And quenched with the cold of death. That if affection be a line, That is clos'd up in our last hour; Oh how 'twould grieve me, any pow'r Could force so dear a love as mine! She scarce had done, when his shut eyes An inward joy did represent, To hear Celinda thus intent To a love he so much did prize. Then with a look, it seem'd, deny'd All earthly pow'r but hers, yet so, As if to her breath he did owe This borrow'd life, he thus repli'd; O you, wherein, they say, Souls rest, Till they descend pure heavenly fires, Shall lustful and corrupt desires With your immortal seed be blest? And shall our Love, so far beyond That low and dying appetite, And which so chast desires unite, Not hold in an eternal bond? Is it, because we should decline, And wholly from our thoughts exclude Objects that may the sense delude, And study only the Divine? No sure, for if none can ascend Ev'n to the visible degree Of things created, how should we The invisible comprehend? Or rather since that Pow'r exprest His greatness in his works alone, B'ing here best in his Creatures known, Why is he not lov'd in them best? But is't not true, which you pretend, That since our love and knowledge here, Only as parts of life appear, So they with it should take their end. O no, Belov'd, I am most sure, Those vertuous habits we acquire, As being with the Soul intire, Must with it evermore endure. For if where sins and vice reside, We find so foul a guilt remain, As never dying in his stain, Still punish'd in the Soul doth bide, Much more that true and real joy, Which in a vertuous love is found, Must be more solid in its ground, Than Fate or Death can e'er destroy. Else should our Souls in vain elect, And vainer yet were Heavens laws, When to an everlasting Cause They gave a perishing Effect. Nor here on earth then, nor above, Our good affection can impair, For where God doth admit the fair, Think you that he excludeth Love? These eyes again, then, eyes shall see, And hands again these hands enfold, And all chast pleasures can be told Shall with us everlasting be. For if no use of sense remain When bodies once this life forsake, Or they could no delight partake, Why should they ever rise again? And if every imperfect mind Make love the end of knowledge here, How perfect will our love be, where All imperfection is refin'd? Let then no doubt, Celinda, touch, Much less your fairest mind invade, Were not our souls immortal made, Our equal loves can make them such. So when one wing can make no way, Two joyned can themselves dilate, So can two persons propagate, When singly either would decay. So when from hence we shall be gone, And be no more, nor you, nor I, As one anothers mystery, Each shall be both, yet both but one. This said, in her up-lifted face, Her eyes which did that beauty crown, Were like two stars, that having faln down, Look up again to find their place: While such a moveless silent peace Did seize on their becalmed sense, One would have thought some Influence Their ravish'd spirits did possess. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ELIZABETH CHILDERS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS ANNIVERSARY by PRIMUS ST. JOHN STILLBIRTH by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR THE FAIREST THING IN MORTAL EYES by CHARLES D'ORLEANS OBEDIENCE OF THE CORPSE by CAROLYN D. WRIGHT STILL LIFE by ANNE MILLAY BREMER ON AN INFANT UNBORN, AND THE MOTHER DYING IN TRAVAIL by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) 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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