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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE YOUNG GLASS-STAINER by THOMAS HARDY VITAI LAMPADA by HENRY JOHN NEWBOLT A WISH by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI |