Eque brevi verbo ferre perenne malum.

    SECUNDUS, eleg. vii.

Still the question I must parry,

  Still a wayward truant prove:

Where I love, I must not marry;

  Where I marry, can not love.

Were she fairest of creation,

  With the least presuming mind;

Learned without affectation;

  Not deceitful, yet refined;

Wise enough, but never rigid;

  Gay, but not too lightly free;

Chaste as snow, and yet not frigid:

  Fond, yet satisfied with me:

Were she all this ten times over,

  All that heaven to earth allows.

I should be too much her lover

  Ever to become her spouse.

Love will never bear enslaving;

  Summer garments suit him best;

Bliss itself is not worth having,

  If we're by compulsion blest.