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I.
In the
nativity of time,
Chloris! it was not thought a crime
In direct Hebrew for to woe.
Now wee make love, as
all on fire,
Ring retrograde our lowd desire,
And
court in English backward too.
II.
Thrice
happy was that golden age,
When complement was
constru'd rage,
And fine words in the center hid;
When cursed NO stain'd no maid's blisse,
And all
discourse was summ'd in YES,
And nought forbad, but
to forbid.
III.
Love then unstinted love did
sip,
And cherries pluck'd fresh from the lip,
On
cheeks and roses free he fed;
Lasses, like Autumne
plums, did drop,
And lads indifferently did drop
A
flower and a maiden-head.
IV.
Then unconfined
each did tipple
Wine from the bunch, milk from the
nipple;
Paps tractable as udders were.
Then
equally the wholsome jellies
Were squeez'd from
olive-trees and bellies:
Nor suits of trespasse did
they fear.
V.
A fragrant bank of strawberries,
Diaper'd with violets' eyes,
Was table, table-cloth
and fare;
No palace to the clouds did swell,
Each
humble princesse then did dwell
In the Piazza of her
hair.
VI.
Both broken faith and th' cause of
it,
All-damning gold, was damn'd to th' pit;
Their
troth seal'd with a clasp and kisse,
Lasted until
that extreem day,
In which they smil'd their souls
away,
And in each other breath'd new blisse.
VII.
Because no fault, there was no tear;
No grone
did grate the granting ear,
No false foul breath,
their del'cat smell.
No serpent kiss poyson'd the
tast,
Each touch was naturally chast,
And their
mere Sense a Miracle.
VIII.
Naked as their own
innocence,
And unembroyder'd from offence,
They
went, above poor riches, gay;
On softer than the
cignet's down,
In beds they tumbled off their own:
For each within the other lay.
IX.
Thus did
they live: thus did they love,
Repeating only joyes
above,
And angels were but with cloaths on,
Which
they would put off cheerfully,
To bathe them in the
Galaxie,
Then gird them with the heavenly zone.
X.
Now, Chloris! miserably crave
The offer'd
blisse you would not have,
Which evermore I must
deny:
Whilst ravish'd with these noble dreams,
And
crowned with mine own soft beams,
Injoying of my self
I lye.
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