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FRIENDSHIP IN ABSENCE.

WHEN chance or cruel business parts us two,
What do our souls, I wonder, do?

Whilst sleep does our dull bodies tie,
Methinks at home they should not stay,
Content with dreams, but boldly fly
Abroad, and meet each other half the way.

Sure they do meet, enjoy each other there,
And mix, I know not how nor where!
Their friendly lights together twine,
Though we perceive 't not to be so !
Like loving stars, which oft combine,
Yet not themselves their own conjunctions know.
"Twere an ill world, I'll swear, for every friend,
If distance could their union end:
But Love itself does far advance
Above the power of time and space;
It scorns such outward circumstance,
His time's for ever, every-where his place.

I'm there with thee, yet here with me thou art,
Lodged in each other's heart:

Miracles cease not yet in love.
When he his mighty power will try,
Absence itself does bounteous prove,
And strangely even our presence multiply.

Pure is the flame of Friendship, and divine,
Like that which in Heaven's sun does shine:
He in the upper air and sky

Does no effects of heat bestow;

But, as his beams the farther fly,

He begets warmth, life, beauty, here below.

Friendship is less apparent when too nigh,
Like objects if they touch the eye.
Less meritorious then is love;
For when we friends together see

So much, so much both one do prove,
That their love then seems but self-love to be.

Each day think on me, and each day I shall
For thee make hours canonical.

By every wind that comes this way,
Send me, at least, a sigh or two;
Such and so many I'll repay,

As shall themselves make winds to get to you.

A thousand pretty ways we'll think
To mock our separation.

upon,

Alas! ten thousand will not do:
My heart will thus no longer stay;
No longer 'twill be kept from you,
But knocks against the breast to get away.
And, when no art affords me help or ease,
I seek with verse my griefs to' appease;
Just as a bird, that flies about
And beats itself against the cage,
Finding at last no passage out,

It sits and sings, and so o'ercomes its rage.

TO THE

BISHOP OF LINCOLN,

UPON HIS ENLARGEMENT OUT OF THE
TOWER.

PARDON, my lord, that I am come so late
To' express my joy for your return of fate!
So, when injurious Chance did you deprive
Of liberty, at first I could not grieve;

My thoughts awhile, like you, imprison'd lay;
Great joys, as well as sorrows, make a stay;
They hinder one another in the crowd,

And none are heard, whilst all would speak aloud.
Should every man's officious gladness haste,
And be afraid to show itself the last,

The throng of gratulations now would be
Another loss to you of liberty.

When of your freedom men the news did hear,
Where it was wish'd-for, that is every-where,
'Twas like the speech which from your lips does fall;
As soon as it was heard, it ravish'd all.

So eloquent Tully did from exile come;

Thus long'd-for he return'd, and cherish'd Rome;
Which could no more his tongue and counsels miss;
Rome, the world's head, was nothing without his.
Wrong to those sacred ashes I should do,
Should I compare any to him but you;
You, to whom Art and Nature did dispense
The consulship of wit and eloquence.
Nor did your fate differ from his at all,
Because the doom of exile was his fall;

For the whole world, without a native home,
Is nothing but a prison of larger room.
But like a melting woman suffer'd he,
He who before out-did humanity ;

Nor could his spirit constant and steadfast prove,
Whose art 't had been, and greatest end, to move.
You put ill-fortune in so good a dress,
That it out-shone other men's happiness:
Had your prosperity always clearly gone,
As your high merits would have led it on,
You'ad half been lost, and an example then
But for the happy-the least part of men.

Your very sufferings did so graceful show,
That some strait envy'd your affliction too;
For a clear conscience and heroic mind
In ills their business and their glory find.
So, though less worthy stones are drown'd in night,
The faithful diamond keeps his native light,
And is obliged to darkness for a ray,

That would be more oppress'd than help'd by day.
Your soul then most show'd her unconquer'd power,
Was stronger and more armed than the Tower.
Sure unkind Fate will tempt your spirit no more ;
She' has try'd her weakness and your strength be-
fore,

To' oppose him still, who once has conquer'd so, Were now to be your rebel, not your foe; Fortune henceforth will more of providence have, And rather be your friend than be your

TO A LADY,

WHO MADE POSIES FOR RINGS.

slave.

I LITTLE thought the time would ever be,
That I should wit in dwarfish posies see.
As all words in few letters live,
Thou to few words all sense dost give.
"Twas Nature taught you
this rare art,

In such a little much to show;

Who, all the good she did impart
To womankind, epitomized in you.

If, as the ancients did not doubt to sing,
The turning years be well compared to a ring,
We'll write whate'er from you we hear;
For that's the posy of the year.

This difference only will remain

That Time his former face does shew,
Winding into himself again;

But your unweary'd wit is always new.

'Tis said that conjurers have an art found out
To carry spirits confined in rings about:
The wonder now will less appear,
When we behold your magic here.
You, by your rings, do prisoners take,
And chain them with your mystic spells,
And, the strong witchcraft full to make,
Love, the great devil, charm'd to those circles,
dwells.

They who above do various circles find, Say, like a ring the' Equator heaven does bind. When heaven shall be adorn'd by thee (Which then more Heaven than 'tis will be), 'Tis thou must write the posy there; For it wanteth one as yet,

Though the sun pass through 't twice a year; The sun, who is esteem'd the god of wit.

Happy the hands which wear thy sacred rings, They'll teach those hands to write mysterious things. Let other rings, with jewels bright,

Cast around their costly light;

Let them want no noble stone,

By nature rich and art refined;

Yet shall thy rings give place to none, But only that which must thy marriage bind.

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