Give me leave to rail at you, -
I ask nothing but my due:
To call you false, and then to say
You shall not keep my heart a day.
But
alas! against my will
I must be your captive still.
Ah! be kinder, then, for I
Cannot
change, and would not die.
Kindness has resistless charms;
All besides but weakly move;
Fiercest anger it disarms,
And clips the wings of flying love.
Beauty does the heart
invade,
Kindness only can
persuade;
It
gilds the lover's servile
chain,
And makes the
slave grow pleased again.
--
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester