| |
| I HAVE examined and do find, | |
| Of all that favour me, | |
| There’s none I grieve to leave behind | |
| But only, only thee. | |
| To part with thee I needs must die, | 5 |
| Could parting separate thee and I. | |
| |
| But neither chance nor compliment | |
| Did element our love: | |
| ’Twas sacred sympathy was lent | |
| Us from the quire above. | 10 |
| (That friendship fortune did create, | |
| Still fears a wound from time or fate.) | |
| |
| Our changed and mingled souls are grown | |
| To such acquaintance now, | |
| That if each would resume their own, | 15 |
| Alas! we know not how. | |
| We have each other so engrost, | |
| That each is in the union lost. | |
| |
| And thus we can no absence know, | |
| Nor shall we be confined; | 20 |
| Our active souls will daily go | |
| To learn each other’s mind. | |
| Nay, should we never meet to sense, | |
| Our souls would hold intelligence. | |
| |
| Inspired with a flame divine | 25 |
| I scorn to court a stay; | |
| For from that noble soul of thine | |
| I ne’er can be away. | |
| But I shall weep when thou dost grieve; | |
| Nor can I die whilst thou dost live. | 30 |
| |
| By my own temper I shall guess | |
| At thy felicity, | |
| And only like my happiness | |
| Because it pleaseth thee. | |
| Our hearts at any time will tell | 35 |
| If thou, or I, be sick, or well. | |
| |
| All honour, sure, I must pretend, | |
| All that is good or great; | |
| She that would be Rosania’s friend | |
| Must be at least complete: | 40 |
| If I have any bravery, | |
| ’Tis cause I have so much of thee. | |
| |
| Thy lieger soul in me shall lie, | |
| And all thy thoughts reveal; | |
| Then back again with mine shall fly, | 45 |
| And thence to me shall steal. | |
| Thus still to one another tend: | |
| Such is the sacred name of friend. | |
| |
| Thus our twin-souls in one shall grow, | |
| And teach the world new love, | 50 |
| Redeem the age and sex, and show | |
| A flame fate dares not move: | |
| And courting death to be our friend, | |
| Our lives, together too, shall end. | |
| |
| A dew shall dwell upon our tomb | 55 |
| Of such a quality | |
| That fighting armies, thither come, | |
| Shall reconcilèd be. | |
| We’ll ask no epitaph, but say: | |
| ORINDA and ROSANIA. | 60 |
| |
