Eternity of Love Protested

by Thomas Carew

How ill doth he deserve a lover's name,
      Whose pale weak flame
      Cannot retain
His heat, in spite of absence or disdain;
But doth at once, like paper set on fire,
      Burn and expire;
True love can never change his seat,
Nor did her ever love, that could retreat.

That noble flame which my breast keeps alive
      Shall still survive
      When my soul's fled;
Nor shall my love die when my body's dead,
That shall wait on me to the lower shade,
      And never fade;
My very ashes in their urn
Shall, like a hallow'd lamp, forever burn.


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