English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 239. To Lucasta, Going Beyond the Seas |
| | | Richard Lovelace (1618–1658) |
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| IF to be absent were to be | |
| Away from thee; | |
| Or that when I am gone | |
| You or I were alone; | |
| Then, my Lucasta, might I crave | 5 |
| Pity from blustering wind, or swallowing wave. | |
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| But I’ll not sigh one blast or gale | |
| To swell my sail, | |
| Or pay a tear to ’suage | |
| The foaming blue god’s rage; | 10 |
| For whether he will let me pass | |
| Or no, I’m still as happy as I was. | |
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| Though seas and land betwixt us both, | |
| Our faith and troth, | |
| Like separated souls, | 15 |
| All time and space controls: | |
| Above the highest sphere we meet | |
| Unseen, unknown, and greet as Angels greet. | |
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| So then we do anticipate | |
| Our after-fate, | 20 |
| And are alive i’ the skies, | |
| If thus our lips and eyes | |
| Can speak like spirits unconfined | |
| In Heaven, their earthly bodies left behind. | |
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