To Ellinda, That Lately I Have Not Written

Richard Lovelace

                    I.
If in me anger, or disdaine
In you, or both, made me refraine
From th' noble intercourse of verse,
That only vertuous thoughts rehearse;
  Then, chaste Ellinda, might you feare
  The sacred vowes that I did sweare.

                    II.
But if alone some pious thought
Me to an inward sadnesse brought,
Thinking to breath your soule too welle,
My tongue was charmed with that spell;
  And left it (since there was no roome
  To voyce your worth enough) strooke dumbe.

                    III.
So then this silence doth reveal
No thought of negligence, but zeal:
For, as in adoration,
This is love's true devotion;
  Children and fools the words repeat,
  But anch'rites pray in tears and sweat.

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