Love's World

In each man's heart that doth beginTo love, there's ever fram'd withinA little world, for so I found,When first my passion reason drown'd.

Instead of earth unto this frame,Earth5I had a faith was still the same;For to be right it doth behooveIt be as that, fixt and not move;

Yet as the earth may sometime shake(For winds shut up will cause a quake),10So, often jealousy and fear,Stol'n into mine, cause tremblings there.

My Flora was my sun, for asSunOne sun, so but one Flora was:All other faces borrowed hence15Their light and grace, as stars do thence.

My hopes I call my moon, for they,MoonInconstant still, were at no stay;But, as my sun inclin'd to me,Or more or less were sure to be:20

Sometimes it would be full, and thenO! too, too soon decrease again;Eclipst sometimes, that 'twould so fallThere would appear no hope at all.

My thoughts, 'cause infinite they be,Stars25Must be those many stars we see;Of which some wand'red at their will,FixedBut most on her were fixed still.Planets

My burning flame and hot desireElementsMust be the element of fire,of fire30Which 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 gone35When too much fuel is laid on.

But as it plainly doth appear,That fire subsists by being nearThe moon's bright orb, so I believeOurs doth, for hope keeps love alive.40

My fancy was the air, most freeAirAnd full of mutability,Big with chimeras, vapours hereInnumerable hatcht as there.

The sea's my mind, which calm would be,Sea45Were it from winds (my passions) free;But out alas! no sea I findIs troubled like a lover's mind.

Within it rocks and shallows be,Despair and fond credulity.50

But in this world it were good reasonWe 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 placeWinter55Creates the winter; and the spaceShe tarried with me, well I mightCall it my summer of delight.Summer

Diversity of weather cameFrom what she did, and thence had name;60Sometimes sh' would smile—that made it fair;And when she laught, 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,65Extremely 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 loverThe rest hereafter will discover.70