Farewell to Love

Whilst yet to prove,

I thought there was some Deitie in love

So did I reverence, and gave

Worship, as Atheists at their dying houre

Call, what they cannot name, an unknowne power,　

As ignorantly did I crave:

Thus when

Things not yet knowne are coveted by men,

Our desires give them fashion, and so

As they waxe lesser, fall, as they sise, grow.　

But, from late faire

His hignesse sitting in a golden Chaire,

Is not lesse cared for after three dayes

By children, then the thing which lovers so

Blindly admire, and with such worship wooe;　

Being had, enjoying it decayes:

And thence,

What before pleas'd them all, takes but one sense,

And that so lamely, as it leaves behinde

A kinde of sorrowing dulnesse to the minde.　

Ah cannot wee,

As well as Cocks and Lyons jocund be,

After such pleasures? Unlesse wise

Nature decreed (since each such Act, they say,

Diminisheth the length of life a day)　

This; as shee would man should despise

The sport,

Because that other curse of being short,

And onely for a minute made to be

Eagers desire, to raise posterity.　

Since so, my minde

Shall not desire what no man else can finde,

I'll no more dote and runne

To pursue things which had indammag'd me.

And when I come where moving beauties be,　

As men doe when the summers Sunne

Growes great,

Though I admire their greatnesse, shun their heat;

Each place can afford shadowes. If all faile,

'Tis but applying worme-seed to the Taile.