The Works of Sir John Suckling in prose and verse/Love's Representation
LOVE'S REPRESENTATION
Leaning her head upon my breast,
There on love's bed she lay to rest;
My panting heart rock'd her asleep,
My heedful eyes the watch did keep;
Then, love by me being harbour'd there,5
(No hope to be his harbinger)
Desire his rival kept the door;
For this of him I begg'd no more,
But that, our mistress to entertain,
Some pretty fancy he would frame,10
And represent it in a dream,
Of which myself should give the theme.
Then first these thoughts I bid him show,
Which only he and I did know,
Arrayed in duty and respect,15
And not in fancies that reflect:
Then those of value next present,
Approv'd by all the world's consent;
But, to distinguish mine asunder,
Apparrell'd they must be in wonder.20
Such a device then I would have,
As service, not reward, should crave,
Attir'd in spotless innocence,
Not self-respect, nor no pretence:
Then such a faith I would have shown,25
As heretofore was never known,
Cloth'd with a constant clear intent,
Professing always as it meant:
And, if love no such garments have,
My mind a wardrobe is so brave,30
That there sufficient he may see
To clothe Impossibility.
Then beamy fetters he shall find,
By admiration subt'ly twin'd,
That will keep fast the wanton'st thought,35
That e'er imagination wrought:
There he shall find of joy a chain,
Fram'd by despair of her disdain,
So curiously that it can't tie
The smallest hopes that thoughts now spy.40
There acts, as glorious as the sun,
Are by her veneration spun,
In one of which I would have brought
A pure, unspotted, abstract thought,
Considering her as she is good,45
Not in her frame of flesh and blood.
These atoms then, all in her sight,
I bad him join, that so he might
Discern between true love's creation,
And that love's form that's now in fashion.50
Love, granting unto my request,
Began to labour in my breast;
But, with the motion he did make,
It heav'd so high that she did wake,
Blush'd at the favour she had done,55
Then smil'd, and then away did run.