,
That feeds that flame wherein thy heart consumeth;
Let reason school thy will which doth aspire,
And counsel cool impatience that presumeth;
Drive hence vain thoughts which are fond love's abettors,
For he that seeks his thraldom merits fetters.

The vain idea of this deity
Nursed at the teat of thine imagination,
Was bred, brought up by thine own vanity,
Whose being thou mayst curse from the creation;
And so thou list, thou may as soon forget love,
As thou at first didst fashion and beget love.

DAMON

Peace, Demades, peace shepherd, do not tempt me;
The sage-taught wife may speak thus, but not practise;
Rather from life than from my love exempt me,
My happy love wherein my weal and wrack lies;
Where chilly age first left love, and first lost her,
There youth found love, liked love, and love did foster.

Not as ambitious of their[C] own decay,
But curious to equal your fore-deeds,
So tread we now within your wonted way;
We find your fruits of judgments and their seeds;
We know you loved, and loving learn that lore;
You scorn kind love, because you can no more.

Though from this pure refiner of the thought
The gleanings of your learnings have you gathered
Your lives had been abortive, base and naught,
Except by happy love they had been fathered;
Then still the swain, for I will still avow it;
They have no wit nor worth that disallow it.

Then to renew the ruins of my tears
Be thou no hinderer, Demades, I pray thee.
If my love-sighs grow tedious in thine ears,
Fly me, that fly from joy, I list not stay thee.
Mourn sheep, mourn lambs, and Damon will weep by you;
And when I sigh, "Come home, sweet Phillis," cry you.

Come home, sweet Phillis, for thine absence causeth
A flowerless prime-tide in these drooping meadows;
To push his beauties forth each primrose pauseth,
Our lilies and our roses like coy widows
Shut in their buds, their beauties, and bemoan them,
Because my Phillis doth not smile upon them.

The trees by my redoubled sighs long blasted
Call for thy balm-sweet breath and sunny eyes,
To whom all nature's comforts are hand-fasted;
Breathe, look on them, and they to life arise;
They have new liveries with each smile thou lendest,
And droop with me, when thy fair brow thou bende