The Works of Sir John Suckling in prose and verse/The Guiltless Inconstant
THE GUILTLESS INCONSTANT
My first love, whom all beauties did adorn,
Firing my heart, supprest it with her scorn;
Since like the tinder in my breast it lies,
By every sparkle made a sacrifice.
Each wanton eye can kindle my desire,5
And that is free to all which was entire.
Desiring more, by the desire I lost,
As those that in consumptions linger most.
And now my wand'ring thoughts are not confin'd
Unto one woman, but to womankind:10
This for her shape I love, that for her face,
This for her gesture, or some other grace:
And where that none of all these things I find,
I choose her by the kernel, not the rind:
And so I hope, since my first hope is gone,15
To find in many what I lost in one;
And, like to merchants after some great loss,
Trade by retail, that cannot do in gross.
The fault is hers that made me go astray;
He needs must wander that hath lost his way:20
Guiltless I am; she doth this change provoke,
And made that charcoal, which to her was oak,
And as a looking-glass from the aspect,
Whilst it is whole, doth but one face reflect;
But, being crackt or broken, there are grown25
Many less faces, where there was but one;
So love unto my heart did first prefer
Her image, and there placed none but her;
But, since 'twas broke and martyr'd by her scorn,
Many less faces in her place are born.30