Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.
Elegy II: Distance of place, my Love and me did part
Giles Fletcher (1586?1623)
1.
DISTANCE of place, my Love and me did part; | Yet both did swear, We never would remove! | In sign thereof, I bade her take my heart; | Which did, and doth, and cannot choose but, love. | Thus did we part, in hope to meet again; | Where both did vow most constant to remain. 2. | A she there was that passed betwixt us both; | By whom each knew how other’s cause did fare: | For men to trust men in their love are loath. | Thus had we both of love a Lover’s care. | Haply he seeks his sorrows to renew, | That for his love, doth make another sue. 3. | By her a kiss, a kiss to me She sent; | A kiss for price more worth than purest gold. | She gave it her. To me the kiss was meant. | A she to kiss: what harm if she were bold? | Happy those lips, that had so sweet a kiss! | For heaven itself scarce yields so sweet a bliss. 4. | This modest she, blushing for shame of this, | Or loath to part from that she liked so well, | Did play false play; and gave me not the kiss: | Yet my Love’s kindness could not choose but tell. | Then blame me not, that kissing, sighed and swore, | “I kissed but her, whom you had kissed before!” 5. | “Sweet, love me more! and blame me not, sweet Love! | I kissed those lips: yet, harmless, I do vow: | Scarce would my lips from off those lips remove; | For still, methought, sweet Fair, I kissèd you. | And thus kind love, the sun of all my bliss, | Was both begun, and ended, in a kiss. 6. | “Then send me more; but send them by your friend! | Kiss none but her! nor her, nor none at all. | Beware by whom such treasures you do send! | I must them lose, except I for them call. | And love me, Dear! and still still kissing be! | Both like and love but none, sweet Love! but me!
|