Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO LUCASTA; ODE LYRIC, by RICHARD LOVELACE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO LUCASTA; ODE LYRIC, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ah, lucasta, why so bright
Last Line: And 'tis both her corse and tomb.


AH, Lucasta, why so bright,
Spread with early streaked light!
If still veiled from our sight,
What is't but eternal night?

Ah, Lucasta, why so chaste!
With that vigour, ripeness grac'd!
Not to be by man embrac'd
Makes that royal coin embas'd,
And this golden orchard waste.

Ah, Lucasta, why so great
That thy crammed coffers sweat!
Yet not owner of a seat
May shelter you from Nature's heat,
And your earthly joys complete.

Ah, Lucasta, why so good,
Blest with an unstained flood
Flowing both through soul and blood!
If it be not understood,
'Tis a diamond in mud.

Lucasta, stay! why dost thou fly?
Thou art not bright, but to the eye,
Nor chaste, but in the marriage-tie,
Nor great, but in this treasury,
Nor good, but in that sanctity.

Harder than the orient stone,
Like an apparition,
Or as a pale shadow gone,
Dumb and deaf she hence is flown.

Then receive this equal doom:
Virgins strow no tear or bloom,
No one dig the Parian womb;
Raise her marble heart i' th' room,
And 'tis both her corse and tomb.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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