Love's Wantonness

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <p class='heading'>LOVE'S WANTONNESS.</p> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Love guards the roses of thy lips,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And flies about them like a bee:<br/></span> <span class="i0">If I approach, he forward skips,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And if I kiss, he stingeth me.<br/></span> <span class="i0">Love in thine eyes doth build his bower,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And sleeps within their pretty shine;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And if I look, the boy will lower,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And from their orbs shoot shafts divine.<br/></span> <span class="i0">Love works thy heart within his fire,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And in my tears doth firm the same;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And if I tempt, it will retire,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And of my plaints doth make a game.<br/></span> <span class="i0">Love, let me cull her choicest flowers,<br/></span> <span class="i1">And pity me, and calm her eye;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Make soft her heart, dissolve her lowers,<br/></span> <span class="i1">Then will I praise thy deity,<br/></span> <span class="i0">But if thou do not, Love, I'll truly serve her<br/></span> <span class="i0">In spite of thee, and by firm faith deserve her.<br/></span></div> </div> <p class='author'>Thomas Lodge.</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />