AMYNTOR, FROM BEYOND THE SEA, TO ALEXIS; A DIALOGUE by RICHARD LOVELACE

@3Amyntor.@1 ALEXIS! ah Alexis! can it be,
Though so much wet and dry
Doth drown our eye,
Thou keep'st thy winged voice from me?
@3Alexis.@1 Amyntor, a profounder sea, I fear,
Hath swallow'd me; where now
My arms do row,
I float i' th' ocean of a tear.

Lucasta weeps lest I look back and tread
Your wat'ry land again.
@3Amyntor.@1 I'd through the rain;
Such show'rs are quickly overspread.

Conceive how joy, after this short divorce,
Will circle her with beams,
When, like your streams,
You shall roll back with kinder force,

And call the helping winds to vent your thought.
@3Alexis.@1 Amyntor! Chloris! where,
Or in what sphere
Say, may that glorious fair be sought?

@3Amyntor.@1 She's now the centre of these arms e'er blest,
Whence may she never move,
Till Time and Love
Haste to their everlasting rest.

@3Alexis.@1 Ah subtle swain! doth not my flame rise high
As yours, and burn as hot?
Am not I shot
With the selfsame artillery?

And can I breathe without her air? @3Amynt.@1 Why then,
From thy tempestuous earth,
Where blood and dearth
Reign 'stead of kings, agen

Waft thyself over, and lest storms from far
Arise, bring in our sight
The sea's delight,
Lucasta, that bright Northern star.

@3Alexis.@1 But as we cut the rugged deep, I fear
The green god stops his fell
Chariot of shell,
And smoothes the main to ravish her.

@3Amyntor.@1 Oh no, the Prince of Waters' fires are done;
He as his empire old,
And rivers, cold;
His queen now runs abed to th' sun;
But all his treasure he shall ope that day:
Tritons shall sound, his fleet
In silver meet,
And to her their rich off'rings pay.

@3Alexis.@1 We fly, Amyntor, not amaz'd how sent
By water, earth, or air;
Or if with her
By fire, ev'n there
I move in mine own element.

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