POETRY OF SMOKE. 45 



At a need when, in despair, 

 To paint forth their fairest fair, 

 Or in part but to express 

 That exceeding comeliness 

 Which their fancies doth so strike, 

 They borrow language of dislike, 

 And, instead of Dearest Miss, 

 Jewel, Honey, Sweetheart, Bliss, 

 Call her Cockatrice and Siren, 

 Basilisk, and all that's evil, 

 Witch, Hyena, Mermaid, Devil. 

 Ethiop, Wench, and Blackamoor, 

 Monkey, Ape, and twenty more : 

 Friendly Traitress, Loving Foe 

 Not that she is truly so, 

 But no other way they know 

 A contentment to express, 

 Borders so upon excess, 

 That they do not rightly wot 

 Whether it be pain or not. 



Or as men, constrain'd to part 

 With what's nearest to their heart. 

 While their sorrow's at the height, 

 Lose discrimination quite, 

 And their hasty wrath let fall 

 To appease their frantic gall, 

 On the darling thing whatever 

 Whence they feel it death to sever, 

 Though it be, as they, perforce, 

 Guiltless of the sad divorce. 

 For I must (nor let it grieve thee, 

 Friendliest of plants, that I must) leave 

 thee. 



