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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  325. A Doubt of Martyrdom

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Sir John Suckling. 1609–1642

325. A Doubt of Martyrdom

O FOR some honest lover’s ghost, 
  Some kind unbodied post 
    Sent from the shades below! 
    I strangely long to know 
Whether the noble chaplets wear         5
Those that their mistress’ scorn did bear 
    Or those that were used kindly. 
 
For whatsoe’er they tell us here 
  To make those sufferings dear, 
    ‘Twill there, I fear, be found  10
     That to the being crown’d 
T’ have loved alone will not suffice, 
Unless we also have been wise 
    And have our loves enjoy’d. 
 
What posture can we think him in  15
  That, here unloved, again 
    Departs, and ‘s thither gone 
    Where each sits by his own? 
Or how can that Elysium be 
Where I my mistress still must see  20
    Circled in other’s arms? 
 
For there the judges all are just, 
  And Sophonisba must 
    Be his whom she held dear, 
    Not his who loved her here.  25
The sweet Philoclea, since she died, 
Lies by her Pirocles his side, 
    Not by Amphialus. 
 
Some bays, perchance, or myrtle bough 
  For difference crowns the brow  30
    Of those kind souls that were 
    The noble martyrs here: 
And if that be the only odds 
(As who can tell?), ye kinder gods, 
    Give me the woman here!  35