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CYNTHIADES: TO CYNTHIA ON HER BEING AN INCENDIARY, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: Say, sweetest, whether thou didst use me well
Last Line: To enflame others, but itself not burn.
Subject(s): Love


SAY (sweetest) whether thou didst use me well,
If when in my heart's house I let thee dwell
A welcome inmate, and did not require
More than a kiss a day, for rent or hire:
Thou wert not only pleas'd to stop the rent,
But most ungrateful, burnt the tenement;
Henceforth it will ensue, that thou didst carry
The branded name of an incendiary:
No heart will harbour thee, and thou, like poor
As I, may'st lodging beg from door to door.
If it be so, my ready course will be
To get a licence, and re-edify
My wasted heart. If Cupid shall inquire,
By what mishap my heart was set on fire;
I'll say, my happy fortune was to get
Thy beauty's crop, which being green and wet
With show'rs of tears, I did too hasty in,
Before that throughly withered it had bin:
So heating in the mow it soon became
At first a smoke, and afterwards a flame:
At this Love's little King will much admire,
How cold and wet conjoin'd can cause a fire
Having no heat themselves, but I do know
What he will say, for he will bid me go,
And build my heart of stone: so shall I be
Safe from the lightning of thine eyes, and thee,
The cold, and hardness of stone hearts, best serving
For coy green beauties, and them best preserving.
Yet here is danger; for if thou be in't
My heart to stone, and thine harder than flint,
Knocking together may strike fire, and set
Much more on fire, than hath bin burned yet.
If so it hap, then let those flames calcine
My heart to cinders, so it soften thine:
A heart, which until then doth serve the turn
To enflame others, but itself not burn.





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