Love

The seventeenth Song

by Sir Aston Cokain 1608–1684

From A Chain of Golden Poems (1658)

Love

Ilove a Lass as fair as ere was seen,
Yet have I never seen if she be fair:
Grandees her suitors have and servants been,
And they that wooe her now great Nobles are
How can I therefore think that she will dain
To look on me? I fear I love in vain.

Unto the Beauty which I do so desire
I will make hast, to see how fair she is;
And though I find my betters wooers by her,
I will be bold, and all my thoughts express;
Which when I have done, will she therefore dain
To pity me? I fear I love in vain.

Ile tell her that her hairs are golden Twines
Able t' enamour all the Deities;
And that her eyes are two celestial signes,
More glorious then the twelve within the skies.
When I have told her this, will she then dain
To love me too? I fear I love in vain.

If (when that I have said what I can say,
And made what Protestations I can make)
She will be proud, and coy, and say me Nay,
Though nere so fair, my heart from her Ile take
I will not subject be to her disdain:
The world shall never say I love in vain.

MLA

Cokain, Aston. “The seventeenth Song.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/cokain/319/.

Chicago

Cokain, Aston. “The seventeenth Song.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/cokain/319/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Sir Aston Cokain