Stanzas

1. 1Could Love for ever
2. 2Run like a river,
3. 3And Time's endeavour
4. 4Be tried in vain--
5. 5No other pleasure
6. 6With this could measure;
7. 7And like a treasure
8. 8We'd hug the chain.
9. 9But since our sighing
10. 10Ends not in dying,
11. 11And, formed for flying,
12. 12Love plumes his wing;
13. 13Then for this reason
14. 14Let's love a season;
15. 15But let that season be only Spring.

1. 16When lovers parted
2. 17Feel broken-hearted,
3. 18And, all hopes thwarted,
4. 19Expect to die;
5. 20A few years older,
6. 21Ah! how much colder
7. 22They might behold her
8. 23For whom they sigh!
9. 24When linked together,
10. 25In every weather,
11. 26They pluck Love's feather
12. 27From out his wing--
13. 28He'll stay for ever,
14. 29But sadly shiver
15. 30Without his plumage, when past the Spring.

1. 31Like Chiefs of Faction,
2. 32His life is action--
3. 33A formal paction
4. 34That curbs his reign,
5. 35Obscures his glory,
6. 36Despot no more, he
7. 37Such territory
8. 38Quits with disdain.
9. 39Still, still advancing,
10. 40With banners glancing,
11. 41His power enhancing,
12. 42He must move on--
13. 43Repose but cloys him,
14. 44Retreat destroys him,
15. 45Love brooks not a degraded throne.

1. 46Wait not, fond lover!
2. 47Till years are over,
3. 48And then recover
4. 49As from a dream.
5. 50While each bewailing
6. 51The other's failing.
7. 52With wrath and railing,
8. 53All hideous seem--
9. 54While first decreasing,
10. 55Yet not quite ceasing,
11. 56Wait not till teasing,
12. 57All passion blight:
13. 58If once diminished
14. 59Love's reign is finished--
15. 60Then part in friendship,--and bid good-night.

1. 61So shall Affection
2. 62To recollection
3. 63The dear connection
4. 64Bring back with joy:
5. 65You had not waited
6. 66Till, tired or hated,
7. 67Your passions sated
8. 68Began to cloy.
9. 69Your last embraces
10. 70Leave no cold traces--
11. 71The same fond faces
12. 72As through the past:
13. 73And eyes, the mirrors
14. 74Of your sweet errors,
15. 75Reflect but rapture--not least though last.

1. 76True, separations
2. 77Ask more than patience;
3. 78What desperations
4. 79From such have risen!
5. 80But yet remaining,
6. 81What is't but chaining
7. 82Hearts which, once waning,
8. 83Beat 'gainst their prison?
9. 84Time can but cloy love,
10. 85And use destroy love:
11. 86The wingéd boy, Love,
12. 87Is but for boys--
13. 88You'll find it torture
14. 89Though sharper, shorter,
15. 90To wean, and not wear out your joys.