Song: Love still has something of the sea

Song: Love still has something of the sea

Original Text
H. Kemp, A Collection of Poems ... upon Several Occasions (1672).
1Love still has something of the sea,
3No time his slaves from doubt can free,
4      Nor give their thoughts repose.
5They are becalm'd in clearest days,
6      And in rough weather tost;
7They wither under cold delays,
8      Or are in tempests lost.
9One while they seem to touch the port,
10      Then straight into the main
11Some angry wind in cruel sport
12      Their vessel drives again.
13At first disdain and pride they fear,
14      Which, if they chance to 'scape,
15Rivals and falsehood soon appear
16      In a more dreadful shape.
17By such degrees to joy they come,
18      And are so long withstood,
19So slowly they receive the sum,
20      It hardly does them good.
21'Tis cruel to prolong a pain;
22      And to defer a joy,
23Believe me, gentle Celemene,
25An hundred thousand oaths your fears
26      Perhaps would not remove,
27And if I gaz'd a thousand years,
28      I could no deeper love.

Notes

2] Venus, goddess of beauty and love, and mother of Cupid, was fabled to have risen from the sea. Back to Line
24] the winged boy: Cupid. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1672
RPO poem Editors
G. G. Falle
RPO Edition
3RP 2.57-58.
Rhyme