La Bourbon

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Title:     La Bourbon
Author: Richard Lovelace [More Titles by Lovelace]

DONE MOY PLUS DE PITIE OU<1> PLUS DE CREAULTE,
CAR SANS CI IE NE PUIS PAS VIURE, NE MORIR.

I.
Divine Destroyer, pitty me no more,
Or else more pitty me;<2>
Give me more love, ah, quickly give me more,
Or else more cruelty!
For left thus as I am,
My heart is ice and flame;
And languishing thus, I
Can neither live nor dye!

II.
Your glories are eclipst, and hidden in the grave
Of this indifferency;
And, Caelia, you can neither altars have,
Nor I, a Diety:
They are aspects divine,
That still or smile, or shine,
Or, like th' offended sky,
Frowne death immediately.

Notes:

<1> Original reads AU.

<2> In his poem entitled "Mediocrity in Love rejected," Carew has a similar sentiment:--

"Give me more Love, or more Disdain,
The Torrid, or the Frozen Zone,
Bring equall ease unto my paine;
The Temperate affords me none:
Either extreme, of Love, or Hate,
Is sweeter than a calme estate."
Carew's POEMS, ed. 1651, p. 14.

And so also Stanley (AYRES AND DIALOGUES, set by J. Gamble, 1656, p. 20):--

"So much of absence and delay,
That thus afflicts my memorie.
Why dost thou kill me every day,
Yet will not give me leave to die?"

[The end]
Richard Lovelace's poem: Bourbon

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