Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LUCASTA TAKING THE WATERS AT TUNBRIDGE, by RICHARD LOVELACE


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LUCASTA TAKING THE WATERS AT TUNBRIDGE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ye happy floods! That now must pass
Last Line: Of virtue, honour, love and bliss.
Subject(s): Health Resorts; Tunbridge Wells, England; Spas


YE happy floods! that now must pass
The sacred conduits of her womb,
Smooth and transparent as your face,
When you are deaf, and winds are dumb

Be proud! and if your waters be
Foul'd with a counterfeited tear,
Or some false sigh hath stained ye,
Haste, and be purified there.

And when her rosy gates y' have trac'd,
Continue yet some orient wet,
Till, turn'd into a gem, y' are plac'd
Like diamonds with rubies set.

Ye drops that dew th' Arabian bowers,
Tell me, did you e'er smell or view
On any leaf of all your flowers
So sweet a scent, so rich a hue?

But as through th' organs of her breath
You trickle wantonly, beware:
Ambitious seas in their just death
As well as lovers must have share.

And see! you boil, as well as I,
You that to cool her did aspire
Now troubled and neglected lie,
Nor can yourselves quench your own fire.

Yet still be happy in the thought
That in so small a time as this,
Through all the heavens you were brought
Of Virtue, Honour, Love and Bliss.





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