Page:The Works of Abraham Cowley - volume 2 (ed. Aikin) (1806).djvu/17

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THE MISTRESS.

THE REQUEST.

I'ave often wish'd to love; what shall I do?
Me still the cruel boy does spare;
And I a double task must bear,
First to woo him, and then a mistress too.
Come at last and strike, for shame,
If thou art any thing besides a name;
I'll think thee else no God to be,
But poets rather Gods, who first created thee.

I ask not one in whom all beauties grow;
Let me but love, whate'er she be,
She cannot seem deform'd to me;
And I would have her seem to others so.
Desire takes wings and straight does fly,
It stays not dully to enquire the Why.
That happy thing, a lover, grown,
I shall not see with others' eyes, scarce with mine own.