Katherine Philips ('Orinda') (1632-1664). To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship. William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. 1910. The Book of Restoration Verse

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.

To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship

By Katherine Philips (‘Orinda’) (1632–1664)


I DID not live until this time
Crowned my felicity,
When I could say without a crime,
I am not thine, but Thee.

This carcase breathed, and walk’d, and slept,	5
So that the world believed
There was a soul the motions kept;
But they were all deceived.

For as a watch by art is wound
To motion, such was mine:	10
But never had Orinda found
A soul till she found thine;

Which now inspires, cures, and supplies,
And guides my darkened breast:
For thou art all that I can prize,	15
My Joy, my Life, my Rest.

No bridegroom’s nor crown-conqueror’s mirth
To mine compared can be:
They have but pieces of this Earth,
I’ve all the World in thee.	20

Then let our flames still light and shine,
And no false fear control,
As innocent as our design,
Immortal as our soul.