The Works of Abraham Cowley/Volume 2/Resolved to be Beloved

8384The Works of Abraham Cowley: Volume II. — Resolved to be BelovedAbraham Cowley

RESOLVED TO BE BELOVED.

'T is true, I 'ave lov'd already three or four,
And shall three or four hundred more;
I'll love each fair-one that I see,
Till I find one at last that shall love me.

That shall my Canaan be, the fatal soil
That ends my wanderings and my toil:
I'll settle there, and happy grow;
The country does with milk and honey flow.

The needle trembles so, and turns about,
Till it the northern point find out;
But constant then and fix'd does prove,
Fix'd, that his dearest pole as soon may move.

Then may my vessel torn and shipwreck'd be,
If it put forth again to sea!
It never more abroad shall roam,
Though 't could next voyage bring the Indies home.

But I must sweat in love, and labour yet,
Till I a competency get;
They 're slothful fools who leave a trade,
Till they a moderate fortune by 't have made.

Variety I ask not; give me one
To live perpetually upon;
The person Love does to us fit,
Like manna, has the taste of all in it.