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Mediocrity In Love Rejected

Thomas Carew

Give me more love or more disdain;
      The torrid, or the frozen zone,
Bring equal ease unto my pain;
      The temperate affords me none;
Either extreme, of love, or hate,
Is sweeter than a calm estate.

Give me a storm; if it be love,
      Like Danae in that golden show’r
I swim in pleasure; if it prove
      Disdain, that torrent will devour
My vulture-hopes; and he’s possess’d
Of heaven, that’s but from hell releas’d.

Then crown my joys, or cure my pain;
Give me more love, or more disdain.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Poems | 1640
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