LXXXVIII.
OUT! TRAITOR ABSENCE! Darest thou counsel me From my dear Captainess to run away? Because, in brave array, here marcheth she That to win me, oft shows a present pay. Is faith so weak, or is such force in thee? When sun is hid, can stars such beams display? Cannot heaven's food, once felt, keep stomachs free From base desire, on earthly cates to prey? Tush! ABSENCE! while thy mists eclipse that light, My orphan sense flies to the inward sight; Where memory sets forth the beams of love. That where before heart loved and eyes did see; In heart both sight and love both coupled be. United powers make each the stronger prove.
LXXXIX.
NOW THAT of absence the most irksome night, With darkest shade, doth overcome my day: Since STELLA'S eyes wont to give me my day; Leaving my hemisphere, leave me in night. Each day seems long, and longs for long-stayed night; The night as tedious, woos th'approach of day. Tired with the dusty toils of busy day; Languisht with horrors of the silent night: Suffering the evils both of the day and night; While no night is more dark than is my day, Nor no day hath less quiet than my night. With such bad mixture of my night and day; That living thus in blackest winter night, I feel the flames of hottest summer's day.
