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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LOVE AND MUSIC by HENRY LAWES

First Line: COME, MY SWEET, WHILST EVERY STRAIN
Last Line: SCORNING THE FORGETFUL LAKE.
Subject(s): CONTENTMENT; DESIRE; LOVE;

COME, my Sweet, whilst every strain
Calls our souls into the ear,
Where the greedy, listening fain
Would turn into the sound they hear;
Lest in desire
To fill the quire
Themselves they tie
To harmony,
Let's kiss and call them back again.

Now let's orderly convey
Our souls into each other's breast,
Where interchangèd let them stay
Slumbering in a melting rest;
Then with new fire
Let them retire,
And still present
Sweet fresh content,
Youthful as the early day.

Then let us a tumult make,
Shuffling so our souls that we
Careless who did give or take,
May not know in whom they be;
Then let each smother
And stifle the other,
Till we expire
In gentle fire,
Scorning the forgetful Lake.



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