1. <br />Ask not the cause why sullen spring <br />So long delays her flowers to bear; <br />Why warbling birds forget to sing, <br />And winter storms invert the year; <br />Chloris is gone, and Fate provides <br />To make it spring where she resides. <br /> <br />2. <br />Chloris is gone, the cruel fair; <br />She cast not back a pitying eye; <br />But left her lover in despair, <br />To sigh, to languish, and to die: <br />Ah, how can those fair eyes endure <br />To give the wounds they will not cure! <br /> <br />3. <br />Great god of love, why hast thou made <br />A face that can all hearts command, <br />That all religions can invade, <br />And change the laws of every land? <br />Where thou hadst plac'd such pow'r before, <br />Thou shouldst have made her mercy more. <br /> <br />4. <br />When Chloris to the temple comes, <br />Adoring crowds before her fall; <br />She can restore the dead from tombs, <br />And ev'ry life but mine recall. <br />I only am by love designed <br />To be the victim for mankind.<br /><br />John Dryden<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-song-to-a-fair-young-lady-going-out-of-town-in-the-spring/
