The Works of Abraham Cowley/Volume 2/Enjoyment

by Abraham Cowley

ENJOYMENT.

Then like some wealthy island thou shalt lie,
And like the sea about it, I;
Thou, like fair Albion to the sailors' sight,
Spreading her beauteous bosom all in white;
Like the kind Ocean I will be,
With loving arms for ever clasping thee.

But I'll embrace thee gentlier far than so;
As their fresh banks soft rivers do:
Nor shall the proudest planet boast a power
Of making my full love to ebb one hour;
It never dry or low can prove,
Whilst thy unwasted fountain feeds my love.

Such heat and vigour shall our kisses bear,
As if like doves we 'engender'd there:
No bound nor rule my pleasures shall endure,
In love there's none too much an Epicure:
Nought shall my hands or lips control;
I'll kiss thee through, I'll kiss thy very soul.

Yet nothing but the night our sports shall know;
Night, that's both blind and silent too!
Alphæus found not a more secret trace,
His lov'd Sicanian fountain to embrace,
Creeping so far beneath the sea,
Than I will do t'enjoy and feast on thee.

Men, out of wisdom; women, out of pride,
The pleasant thefts of love do hide:
That may secure thee; but thou 'ast yet from me
A more infallible security;
For there's no danger I should tell
The joys which are to me unspeakable.

 

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