LOVE'S WORLD by JOHN SUCKLING

IN each man's heart that doth begin
To love, there's ever fram'd within
A little world, for so I found,
When first my passion reason drown'd.

Instead of earth unto this frame, @3Earth.@1
I had a faith was still the same;
For to be right it doth behoove
It be as that, fix'd and not move;

Yet as the earth may sometimes shake
(For winds shut up will cause a quake),
So, often jealousy and fear,
Stol'n into mine, cause tremblings there.

My Flora was my sun, for as @3Sun.@1
One sun, so but one Flora was:
All other faces borrow'd hence
Their light and grace, as stars do thence.

My hopes I call my moon, for they, @3Moon.@1
Inconstant still, were at no stay;
But as my sun inclin'd to me,
Or more or less were sure to be:

Sometimes it would be full, and then
Oh, too too soon decrease again;
Eclips'd sometimes, that 'twould so fall
There would appear no hope at all.

My thoughts, 'cause infinite they be, @3Stars.@1
Must be those many stars we see;
Of which some wand'red at their will, @3Fixed Planets.@1
But most on her were fixed still.

My burning flame and hot desire @3Element of fire.@1
Must be the element of fire,
Which hath as yet so secret been,
That it as that was never seen:

No kitchen fire nor eating flame,
But innocent, hot but in name;
A fire that's starv'd when fed, and gone
When too much fuel is laid on.

But as it plainly doth appear
That fire subsists by being near
The moon's bright orb, so I believe
Ours doth, for hope keeps love alive.

My fancy was the air, most free @3Air.@1
And full of mutability,

Big with chimeras, vapours here
Innumerable hatch'd as there.

The sea 's my mind, which calm would be, @3Sea.@1
Were it from winds (my passions) free;
But out, alas! no sea I find
Is troubled like a lover's mind.

Within it rocks and shallows be,
Despair and fond credulity.

But in this world it were good reason
We did distinguish time and season;
Her presence then did make the day,
And night shall come when she's away.

Long absence in far-distant place
Creates the Winter; and the space @3Winter.@1
She tarri'd with me, well I might
Call it my Summer of delight. @3Summer.@1

Diversity of weather came
From what she did, and thence had name;
Sometimes sh' would smile---that made it fair;
And when she laugh'd, the sun shin'd clear.

Sometimes sh' would frown, and sometimes weep,
So clouds and rain their turns do keep;
Sometimes again sh' would be all ice,
Extremely cold, extremely nice.

But soft, my Muse, the world is wide,
And all at once was not descri'd:
It may fall out some honest lover
The rest hereafter will discover.

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...