| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | On His Mistress Drowned | | By Thomas Sprat (1635–1713) |
| | | SWEET stream, that dost with equal pace, | |
| Both thyself fly and thyself chase, | |
| Forbear a while to flow; | |
| And listen to my woe. | |
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| Then go, and tell the sea: That all its brine | 5 |
| Is fresh, compared to mine; | |
| Inform it, that the gentler dame, | |
| Who was the life of all my flame, | |
| In th’ glory of her bud, | |
| Has passed the fatal flood; | 10 |
| Death, by this only stroke, triumphs above | |
| The greatest power of love. | |
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| Alas! alas! I must give o’er; | |
| My sighs will let me add no more. | |
| Go on, sweet stream, and henceforth rest | 15 |
| No more than does my troubled breast. | |
| And if my sad complaints have made thee stay: | |
| These tears, these tears, shall mend thy way. | | | | |
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