The Works of Abraham Cowley/Volume 2/The Given Heart

I wonder what those lovers mean, who say, They 'ave giv'en their hearts away. Some good kind lover tell me how; For mine is but a torment to me now.

If so it be one place both hearts contain, For what do they complain? What courtesy can Love do more, Than to join hearts, that parted were before?

Woe to her stubborn heart, if once mine come Into the self same room; Twill tear and blow up all within, Like a granado shot into a magazine.$1$

Then shall Love keep the ashes, and torn parts Of both our broken hearts: Shall out of both one new one make, From hers, th' allay;$2$ from mine, the metal take.

For of her heart he from the flames will find But little left behind: Mine only will remain entire; No dross$3$ was there, to perish in the fire.

[1] Like a grenade shot into a place where amunition is stored. [2] An alloy, a compound mixed with a pure metal to give it some desirable quality like strength. [3] In metallurgy, impurities (like alloy compounds) that rise to the surface when metals are heated; the impurities can be poured off leaving pure metal.