Love

Song from "Marriage A-la-Mode" (Why should a foolish marriage vow)

by John Dryden 1631–1700

Love

Why should a foolish marriage vow,
Which long ago was made,
Oblige us to each other now,
When passion is decay'd?
We lov'd, and we lov'd, as long as we could,
Till our love was lov'd out in us both;
But our marriage is dead, when the pleasure is fled:
'T was pleasure first made it an oath.

If I have pleasures for a friend,
And farther love in store,
What wrong has he whose joys did end,
And who could give no more?
'T is a madness that he should be jealous of me,
Or that I should bar him of another:
For all we can gain is to give ourselves pain,
When neither can hinder the other.

MLA

Dryden, John. “Song from "Marriage A-la-Mode" (Why should a foolish marriage vow).” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/dryden/183/.

Chicago

Dryden, John. “Song from "Marriage A-la-Mode" (Why should a foolish marriage vow).” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/dryden/183/.

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