LOVE in her sunny eyes does basking play; <br />Love walks the pleasant mazes of her hair; <br />Love does on both her lips for ever stray <br />And sows and reaps a thousand kisses there. <br />In all her outward parts Love's always seen; <br />But, oh, He never went within. <br /> <br />Within Love's foes, his greatest foes abide, <br />Malice, Inconstance, and Pride. <br />So the Earth's face, trees, herbs, and flowers do dress, <br />With other beauties numberless; <br />But at the center, darkness is, and Hell; <br />There wicked spirits, and there the Damned dwell. <br /> <br />With me alas, quite contrary it fares; <br />Darkness and death lies in my weeping eyes, <br />Despair and paleness in my face appears, <br />And grief, and fear, Love's greatest enemies; <br />But, like the Persian tyrant, Love within <br />Keeps his proud court, and ne're is seen. <br /> <br />Oh take my heart, and by that means you'll prove <br />Within, too stor'd enough of Love; <br />Give me but yours, I'll by that change so thrive, <br />That Love in all my parts shall live. <br />So powerful is this change, it render can, <br />My outside woman, and your inside man.<br /><br />Abraham Cowley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-change-22/
