Platonic Love

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  1

 Indeed I must confess,
 When souls mix ’tis an happiness,
But not complete till bodies too do join,
And both our wholes into one whole combine;
But half of heaven the souls in glory taste
 Till by love in heaven at last
 Their bodies too are placed.

  2

 In thy immortal part
 Man, as well as I, thou art.
But something ’tis that differs thee and me,
And we must one even in that difference be.
I thee both as a man and woman prize,
 For a perfect love implies
 Love in all capacities.

  3

 Can that for true love pass
 When a fair woman courts her glass?
Something unlike must in love’s likeness be:
His wonder is one and variety.
For he whose soul nought but a soul can move
 Does a new Narcissus prove,
 And his own image love.

  4

 That souls do beauty know
 ’Tis to the body’s help they owe;
If when they know’t they straight abuse that trust
And shut the body from’t, ’tis as unjust
As if I brought my dearest friend to see
 My mistress and at th’instant he
 Should steal her quite from me.

© Abraham Cowley