Page:The Works of Abraham Cowley - volume 2 (ed. Aikin) (1806).djvu/97

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THE USURPATION.
81
And every smallest corner still
Lives with the torment which the whole did kill.

Even so rude armies, when the field they quit,
And into several quarters get;
Each troop does spoil and ruin more
Than all join'd in one body did before.

How many Loves reign in my bosom now!
How many loves, yet all of you!
Thus have I chang'd with evil fate
My Monarch-love into a Tyrant-state.



THE USURPATION.

Thou 'adst to my soul no title or pretence;
I was mine own, and free,
Till I had given myself to thee;
But thou hast kept me slave and prisoner since.
Well, since so insolent thou 'rt grown,
Fond tyrant! I'll depose thee from thy throne;
Such outrages must not admitted be
In an elective monarchy.

Part of my heart by gift did to thee fall;
My country, kindred, and my best
Acquaintance, were to share the rest;
But thou, their covetous neighbour, drav'st out all: