Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 1.djvu/48

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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.

The lover supposes his lady acquainted with the ancient laws of augury and rites of sacrifice:

And yet this death of mine, I fear,
Will ominous to her appear:
When sound in every other part,
Her sacrifice is found without an heart.
For the last tempest of my death
Shall sigh out that too, with my breath.

That the chaos was harmonised, has been recited of old; but whence the different sounds arose remained for a modern to discover:

Th' ungovern'd parts no correspondence knew;
An artless war from thwarting motions grew;
Till they to number and fixt rules were brought.
Water and air he for the tenor chose,
Earth made the base; the treble, flame arose.
Cowley.

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