Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647–1680)Song: ‘When on those lovely looks’
W
To see a wretch pursuing,
In raptures of a blest amaze,
His pleasing happy ruin,
’Tis not for pity that I move;
His fate is too aspiring,
Whose heart, broke with a load of love,
Dies wishing and admiring.
Your slave from death removing,
Let me your art of charming know,
Or you learn mine of loving;
But whether life or death betide,
In love ’tis equal measure,
The victor lives with empty pride,
The vanquished dies with pleasure.