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    AC Benus
  • AC Benus
  • Author
  • 09/16/2022
  • 212 Words
  • 272 Views
  • 2 Comments
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry - 76. ...Laws unto the other give...

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Loving and Beloved

 

There never yet was honest Man

That ever drove the Trade of Love;

It is impossible, nor can

Integrity our Ends promove:

For Kings and Lovers are alike in this

That their chief Art in Reign, Dissembling is.

 

Here we are loved, and there we love,

Good Nature now and Passion strive

Which of the two should be above,

And Laws unto the other give.

So we false Fire with Art sometimes discover,

And the true Fire with the same Art do cover.

 

What Rack can Fancy find so high?

Here we must court, and here engage,

Though in the other Place we die.

‘Tis torture all, and Cozenage;

And which the harder is I cannot tell,

To hide true Love, or make false Love look well.

 

Since it is thus, God of Desire,

Give me my Honesty again,

And take thy Brands back, and thy Fire;

I'm weary of the State I'm in:

Since (if the very best should now befall)

Love’s Triumph, must be Honor’s Funeral.

—John Suckling, [i]

1640

 

 

 

 

 

[i] “Loving and Beloved” John Suckling The Works of Sir John Suckling (London 1709), ps. 2-3

https://books.google.com/books?pg=PA2&dq=%22john+suckling%22+sonnet+II&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&id=XToJAAAAQAAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false

_

as noted
  • Love 2
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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Parker Owens

Since (if the very best should now befall) /Love’s Triumph, must be Honor’s Funeral. 

 

Oh how I wish you had been there

When I was young, though no more fair,

To read to me of lines like these

My mind to form and heart to ease;

Alas our education ran

Contrary to this kind of plan,

But now, by your discernment blessed,

I learn from verses of the best.

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

  • Love 2
AC Benus
4 hours ago, Parker Owens said:

Since (if the very best should now befall) /Love’s Triumph, must be Honor’s Funeral. 

 

Oh how I wish you had been there

When I was young, though no more fair,

To read to me of lines like these

My mind to form and heart to ease;

Alas our education ran

Contrary to this kind of plan,

But now, by your discernment blessed,

I learn from verses of the best.

 

Thank you.

Parker, your tribute moves me deeply. Thank you for being there

  • Love 2
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