COWLEY.
xxxvii
If then this body love what th' other did,
'Twere incest, which by nature is forbid.
'Twere incest, which by nature is forbid.
The love of different women is, in geographical poetry, compared to travels through different countries:
Hast thou not found each woman's breast
(The land where thou hast travelled)
Either by savages possest,
Or wild, and uninhabited?
What joy couldst take, or what repose,
In countries so uncivilis'd as those?
Lust, the scorching dog-star, here
Rages with immoderate heat;
Whilst Pride, the rugged Northern Bear,
In others makes the cold too great.
And where these are temperate known,
The soil's all barren sand, or rocky stone.
Cowley.
(The land where thou hast travelled)
Either by savages possest,
Or wild, and uninhabited?
What joy couldst take, or what repose,
In countries so uncivilis'd as those?
Lust, the scorching dog-star, here
Rages with immoderate heat;
Whilst Pride, the rugged Northern Bear,
In others makes the cold too great.
And where these are temperate known,
The soil's all barren sand, or rocky stone.
Cowley.
A lover burnt up by his affection is compared to Egypt:
The fate of Egypt I sustain,
And never feel the dew of rain
From clouds which in the head appear;
But all my too much moisture owe
To overflowings of the heart below.
Cowley.
And never feel the dew of rain
From clouds which in the head appear;
But all my too much moisture owe
To overflowings of the heart below.
Cowley.
