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Though little be the god of love |
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Yet his arrows mighty are |
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And his victories above |
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What the valiant reach by war |
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Nor are his limits with the sky |
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Over the Milky Way he'll fly |
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And sometimes wound a deity |
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Apollo once the python slew |
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But a keener arrow flew |
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From Daphne's eye, and made a wound |
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For which the god, no balsam found |
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A smile of Venus that did more |
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On Mars then armies could before |
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Thus Love can fiery spirits tame |
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And, when he pleases, cold rocks inflame |
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Victorious men of Earth, no more |
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Proclaim how wide your Empires are |
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And though you bind in every shore |
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And your triumphs reach as far as night or day |
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Yet you proud monarchs must obey |
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And mingle with forgotten ashes when |
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Death calls you to The crowd |
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Of common men |
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Devouring famine, plague and war |
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Each able to undo mankind |
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Death's servile emissaries are |
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Nor to these alone confined |
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He has at will |
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More quaint and subtle ways to kill |
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A smile or kiss, he will use the art |
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Shall have the cunning skill |
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To break a heart |
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Stay Cupid, where art you flying? |
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Pity the pale lovers dying |
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They that honoured thee before |
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Will honour thee no more |
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At thy alter pay their vows |
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O let the weeping virgins strow |
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Instead of rose, and myrtle boughs |
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Sad yew and funeral cypress now |
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Unkind Cupid, leave thy killing |
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These are all my mother's doves |
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O do not wound such noble loves |
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And make them bleed, that should be billing |
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What will it, Death, advance thy name? |
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Upon cold rocks to waste a flame |
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Or by mistake seem to throw |
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Bright torches into pits of snow |
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Thy rage is lost, thy old killing frost |
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And with thy arrows you may try |
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To make the young or aged bleed |
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But indeed not compel one heart to die |
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O Love! O Death! Be it your fate |
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Before you both repent too late |
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To meet and try upon yourselves |
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Your sad artillery |
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So Death may make Love kind again |
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Or cruel Death by Love be slain |