The Works of Abraham Cowley/Volume 2/The Increase

by Abraham Cowley

THE INCREASE.

I thought, I'll swear, I could have lov'd no moreThan I had done before;But you as easily might accountTill to the top of numbers you amount,As cast up my love's score.Ten thousand millions was the sum;Millions of endless millions are to come.

I'm sure her beauties cannot greater grow;Why should my love do so?A real cause at first did move;But mine own fancy now drives-on my love,With shadows from itself that flow.My love, as we in numbers see,By cyphers is increas'd eternally.

So the new-made and untry'd spheres aboveTook their first turn from th' hand of Jove;But are, since that beginning, foundBy their own forms to move for ever round.All violent motions short do prove;But, by the length, ’tis plain to seeThat Love's a motion natural to me.