A Dialogue Betwixt Cordanus And Amoret, On A Lost Heart

Richard Lovelace

Cord.     Distressed pilgrim, whose dark clouded eyes
          Speak thee a martyr to love's cruelties,
          Whither away?
Amor.                      What pitying voice I hear,
          Calls back my flying steps?
Cord.                           Pr'ythee, draw near.
Amor.     I shall but say, kind swain, what doth become
          Of a lost heart, ere to Elysium
          It wounded walks?
Cord.                      First, it does freely flye
          Into the pleasures of a lover's eye;
          But, once condemn'd to scorn, it fetter'd lies,
          An ever-bowing slave to tyrannies.
Amor.     I pity its sad fate, since its offence
          Was but for love.  Can tears recall it thence?
Cord.     O no, such tears, as do for pity call,
          She proudly scorns, and glories at their fall.
Amor.     Since neither sighs nor tears, kind shepherd, tell,
          Will not a kiss prevail?
Cord.                           Thou may'st as well
          Court Eccho with a kiss.
Amor.                           Can no art move
          A sacred violence to make her love?
Cord.     O no! 'tis only Destiny or Fate
          Fashions our wills either to love or hate.
Amor.     Then, captive heart, since that no humane spell
          Hath power to graspe thee his, farewell.
Cord. Farewell.
Cho.      Lost hearts, like lambs drove from their folds by fears,
          May back return by chance, but not by tears.]

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