Farewell, fair Armida, my joy and my grief! <br />In vain I have loved you, and hope no relief; <br />Undone by your virtue, too strict and severe, <br />Your eyes gave me love, and you gave me despair: <br />Now called by my honour, I seek with content <br />The fate which in pity you would not prevent: <br />To languish in love were to find, by delay, <br />A death that's more welcome the speediest way. <br />On seas and in battles, in bullets and fire, <br />The danger is less than in hopeless desire; <br />My death's wound you give me, though far off I bear <br />My fall from your sight—not to cost you a tear: <br />But if the kind flood on a wave should convey, <br />And under your window my body should lay, <br />The wound on my breast when you happen to see, <br />You'll say with a sigh—it was given by me.<br /><br />John Dryden<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/farewell-fair-armida-a-song/
