“Come, let us kisse and parte”

Michael Drayton (1563–1631)

SINCE there ’s no helpe,—come, let us kisse and parte,

Nay, I have done,—you get no more of me;

And I am glad,—yea, glad with all my hearte,

That thus so cleanly I myselfe can free.

Shake hands forever!—cancel all our vows;

And when we meet at any time againe,

Be it not seene in either of our brows,

That we one jot of former love retaine.

Now—at the last gaspe of Love’s latest breath—

When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies;

When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,

And Innocence is closing up his eyes,

Now! if thou wouldst—when all have given him over—

From death to life thou mightst him yet recover.