love poetry

LOVING AT FIRST SIGHT

I.

No warning of th' approaching flame,
Swiftly like sudden death it came:
Like travellers by lightning kill'd,
I burnt the moment I beheld.

II.

In whom so many charms are plac'd,
Is with a mind as nobly grac'd;
The case, so shining to behold,
Is fill'd with richest gems and gold.

III.

To what my eyes admir'd before
I add a thousand graces more,
And Fancy blows into a flame
The spark that from her beauty came.

I.

Let earthly minds feed on a dream,
And make an empty sound their theme,
Jesus shall dwell upon my tongue,
His dying love shall be my song.

II.

His name deserves my heart and voice,
This is the name makes me rejoice,
Nor dare I boast another name,
Therefore this Christ shall be my theme.

III.

Was I to speak of joys above,
This Jesus is their sea of love;
Or if I tell of joys below,
This Christ is all the soul can know.

IV.

I.

Down from the glorious realm above
Descends the Saviour cloth'd with love;
Assumes a body (can it be!)
To bleed and suffer death for me.

II.

Freely he spent his life and breath
To save me from eternal death;
And when no helper I could see
Made known his dying love to me.

III.

He took me from the jaws of hell,
And told my soul that all was well;
His love so great, his grace so free,
He said he spilt his blood for me.

IV.

O love amazing! boundless grace!

Loving you so, how could I know
That I should ever grow
To love you more? And ever more, and more;
So that the love I had before,
And thought so great, seems almost naught.
Brightly, yet strangely wrought
Was that old love-attire:
Woven out of desire, out of clouds and fire.

But this is a new way of loving you;
This, night and day, tranquilly, gay;
Not as lovers do who are yet two,
For now I am part of you;
You are not separate from me;
Now we have come to be
One piece of life; move indivisibly.

I.

Sinners arise, the Saviour's come,
And bleeds for wretched souls like you;
His mercy calls the rebels home,
Forgives their sins and loves them too.

II.

Come to the feast without delay,
Before the gospel call is o'er;
Embrace the blessed Lord to day,
Lest he should go, and call no more.

III.

To Mrs. Laura Dillon, now Lady Falkland.

Bacchus! to arms, the enemy's at hand,
Laura appears; stand to your glasses, stand;
The god of Love the god of Wine defies,
Behold him in full march in Laura's eyes:
Bacchus! to arms; and, to resist the dart,
Each with a faithful brimmer guard his heart.
Fly, Bacchus! fly, there's treason in the cup,
For Love comes pouring in with ev'ry drop;
I feel him in my heart, my blood, my brain;
Fly, Bacchus! fly, resistence is in vain,
Or craving quarter: crown a friendly bowl

I.

A plague take all such grumbling elves,
If they will rail, so be it;
Because we're happier than themselves,
They can't endure to see it.

For me, I never shall repine,
Let whate'er fate o'ertake us;
For love and Annette shall be mine,
Though all the world forsake us.

II.

Then, dear Annette, regard them not,

A kernel from an apple's core
One day on either cheek I wore,
Lubin was plac'd on my right cheek,
That on my left did Hodge bespeak;

Hodge in an instant dropt to ground,
Sure token that his love's unsound,
But Lubin nothing could remove,
Sure token his is constant love.

II.

Last May I sought to find a snail,
That might my lover's name reveal,
Which finding, home I quickly sped,
And on the hearth the embers spread;

When, if my letters I can tell,

Say not you love, unlesse you do,
For lying will not profit you. Ladie:
Sir, I do love with love most true:
I will not love, unlesse't be you. Ra:
You say I lie, I say you lie, choose you whether,
But if we both lie, lets lie both together.

UPON A DRINKING-GLASS

The gods of Wine, and Wit, and Love, prepare,
With cheerful bowls, to celebrate the fair;
Love is enjoin'd to name his fav'rite toast,
And Hare's the goddess that delights him most:
Phaebus approves, and bids the trumpets sound,
And Bacchus, in a bumper, sends it round.