Sonnet IV. Love and my Love did range the forest wild

Giles Fletcher (1586?–1623)

LOVE and my Love did range the forest wild,

Mounted alike upon swift coursers both.

LOVE her encountered, though he was a child,

“Let’s strive!” said he. Whereat my Love was wroth;

And scorned the boy, and checked him with a smile.

“I mounted am, and armèd with my spear.

Thou art too weak! Thyself do not beguile!

I could thee conquer, if I naked [unarmed] were!”

With this LOVE wept, and then my Love replied:

“Kiss me, sweet boy, so! Weep, my boy, no more!”

Thus did my Love, and thus her force she tried:

LOVE was made ice, that fire was before.

A kiss of hers (as I, poor soul, do prove)

Can make the hottest, freeze; and coldest love.