Lucasia, Rosania and Orinda parting at a Fountain, July 1663

Lucasia, Rosania and Orinda parting at a Fountain, July 1663*

I

Here, here are our enjoyments done,

    And since the love and grief we wear

    Forbids us either word or tear,

And art wants here expression,

See Nature furnish us with one.

II

The kind and mournful nymph which here

    Inhabits in her humble cells,

    No longer her own sorrow tells

Nor for it now concerned appears,

But for our parting sheds these tears. [10]

III

Unless she may afflicted be,

    Lest we should doubt her innocence,

    Since she hath lost her best pretence

Unto a matchless purity;

Our love being clearer far than she.

IV

Cold as the streams that from her flow,

    Or (if her privater recess

    A greater coldness can express)

Then cold as those dark beds of snow

Our hearts are at this parting blow. [20]

V

But Time, that has both wings and feet,

    Our suffering minutes being spent,

    Will visit us with new content;

And sure, if unkindness be so sweet

’Tis harder to forget than meet.

VI

Then though the sad adieu we say,

    Yet as the wine we hither bring

    Revives, and then exalts the spring;

So let our hopes to meet allay

The fears and sorrows of this day. [30]