Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LOVE AND LIFE, by ABRAHAM COWLEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LOVE AND LIFE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Now sure, within this twelve-month past
Last Line: Twixt hope and fear, my day and night.
Subject(s): Love


1.

NOW, sure, within this twelve-month past,
I have lov'd at least some twenty yeares or more:
Th' Account of Love runs much more fast
Then that, with which our Life does score:
So though my Life be short, yet I may prove
The great Methusalem of Love.

2.

Not that Love's Howers or Minutes are
Shorter then those our Being's measur'd by:
But they're more close-compacted farre,
And so in lesser room do ly.
Thin airy things extend themselves in space,
Things solid take up little Place.

3.

Yet Love, alas, and Life in mee,
Are not two severall things, but purely one,
At once how can there in it be
A double different Motion?
O yes, there may: for so the selfe-same Sunne,
At once does slow and swiftly run.

4.

Swiftly his daily course he goes.
And walks his Annuall with a statelier pace,
And does three hundred rounds enclose
Within one yearly Circle's space.
[At once with double Course, in the same Sphere,
He runs the Day, and walks the Year.]

5.

When Soule does to my selfe referre,
'Tis then my life, and does but slowly move;
But when it does relate to her,
It swiftly flies, and then is love.
Love's my Diurnall course, divided right
'Twixt Hope and Fear, my Day and Night.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net