Classic Poem

Love and Death o' th' way once meeting,
Having passed a friendly greeting,
Sleep their weary eye-lids closing,
Lay them down themselves reposing.
Love, whom divers cares molested,
Could not sleep, but while Death rested,
All in haste away he posts him,
But his haste full dearly costs him;
For it chanced that going to sleeping
Both did give their darts in keeping
Unto Night, who, Error's mother,
Blindly knowing not one from t'other,
Gave Love Death's, and ne'er perceived it,
Whilst as blindly Love received it;
Since which time their darts confounding,
Love now kills instead of wounding:
Death, our hearts with sweetness filling,
Gently wounds instead of killing.