William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.
A Song: Absent from thee I languish stillJohn Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (16471680)
A
Then ask me not, When I return?
The straying fool ’twill plainly kill
To wish all day, all night to mourn.
That my fantastic mind may prove
The torments it deserves to try,
That tears my fix’d heart from my love.
To thy safe bosom I retire,
Where love, and peace, and truth does flow,
May I, contented, there expire.
I fall on some base heart unblest,
Faithless to thee, false, unforgiven,
And lose my everlasting rest.