The Works of Abraham Cowley/Volume 2/Love's Visibility
LOVE'S VISIBILITY.
With much of pain, and all the art I knew,Have I endeavour'd hithertoTo hide my love, and yet all will not do.
The world perceives it, and, it may be, she;Though so discreet and good she be,By hiding it, to teach that skill to me.
Men without love have oft so cunning grown,That something like it they have shown;But none who had it ever seem'd t' have none.
Love's of a strangely open, simple kind,Can no arts or disguises find,But thinks none sees it 'cause itself is blind.
The very eye betrays our inward smart;Love of himself left there a part,When thorough it he past into the heart.
Or if by chance the face betray not it,But keep the secret wisely, yet,Like drunkenness, into the tongue 't will get.