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To Celia pleading want of Merit |
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Written by Thomas Stanley
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| Dear urge no more that killing cause | | | Of our divorce; | | | Love is not fetter'd by such laws, | | | Nor bows to any force: | | | Though thou deniest I should be thine, | 5 | | Yet say not thou deserv'st not to be mine. | | | | | Oh rather frown away my breath | | | With thy disdain, | | | Or flatter me with smiles to death; | | | By joy or sorrow slain, | 10 | | 'Tis lesse crime to be kill'd by thee, | | | Then I thus cause of mine own death should be. | | | | | Thy self of beauty to devest | | | And me of love, | | | Or from the worth of thine own breast | 15 | | Thus to detract, would prove | | | In us a blindnesse, and in thee | | | At best a sacrilegious modestie. | | | | | But (Celia) if thou wilt despise | | | What all admire, | 20 | | Nor rate thy self at the just price | | | Of beauty or desire, | | | Yet meet my flames and thou shalt see | | | That equal love knows no disparity. |
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