Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CHANG'D, YET CONSTANT, by THOMAS STANLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CHANG'D, YET CONSTANT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Wrong me no more
Last Line: Who pay their hearts where they are due.
Subject(s): Fidelity; Faithfulness; Constancy


WRONG me no more
In thy complaint,
Blam'd for inconstancy;
I vow'd t'adore
The fairest Saint,
Nor chang'd whilst thou wert she:
But if another thee outshine,
Th' inconstancy is only thine.

To be by such
Blind fools admir'd,
Gives thee but small esteem,
By whom as much
Thou'dst be desir'd,
Didst thou less beauteous seem:
Sure why they love they know not well,
Who why they should not cannot tell.

Women are by
Themselves betray'd,
And to their short joys cruel,
Who foolishly
Themselves persuade
Flames can outlast their fuel;
None (though Platonic their pretence)
With reason love unless by sense.

And He, by whose
Command to thee
I did my heart resign,
Now bids me choose
A Deity
Diviner far than thine;
No power can Love from Beauty sever;
I'm still Love's subject, thine was never.

The fairest She
Whom none surpass
To love hath only right,
And such to me
Thy beauty was
Till one I found more bright;
But 'twere as impious to adore
Thee now, as not t' have done't before.

Nor is it just
By rules of Love
Thou shouldst deny to quit
A heart that must
Another's prove,
Ev'n in thy right to it;
Must not thy subjects captives be
To her who triumphs over Thee?

Cease then in vain
To blot my name
With forg'd Apostasy,
Thine is that stain
Who dar'st to claim
What others ask of Thee.
Of Lovers they are only true
Who pay their hearts where they are due.





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