The Philosopher and the Lover
To a Mistress Dying
by William Davenant (1606-1668)
LOVER.
Your beauty, ripe and calm and fresh
As eastern summers are,
Must now, forsaking time and flesh,
Add light to some small star.
PHILOSOPHER.
Whilst she yet lives, were stars decayed,
Their light by hers relief might find;
But Death will lead her to a shade
Where Love is cold and Beauty blind.
LOVER.
Lovers, whose priests all poets are,
Think every mistress, when she dies,
Is changed at least into a star:
And who dares doubt the poets wise?
PHILOSOPHER.
But ask not bodies doomed to die
To what abode they go;
Since Knowledge is but Sorrow
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