La Belle Confidente

You earthly souls that court a wanton flame,
Whose pale weak influence
Can rise no higher than the humble name,
And narrow laws of sense,
Learn by our friendship to create
An immaterial fire,
Whose brightness Angels may admire,
But cannot emulate.

Sickness may fright the roses from her cheek,
Or make the lilies fade;
But all the subtile ways that Death doth seek,
Cannot my love invade.
Flames that are kindled by the eye,
Through time and age expire;
But ours, that boast a reach far higher,
Can nor decay nor die.

For when we must resign our vital breath,
Our loves by Fate benighted,
We by this friendship shall survive in death,
Even in divorce united.
Weak Love, through fortune or distrust,
In time forgets to burn,
But this pursues us to the urn,
And marries either's dust.