Love’s an headstrong wild Desire
To possess what we admire:
Hurrying on without reflecting,
All, that’s just, or wise, neglecting.
Pain, or Pleasure, it is neither,
But Excess of both together;
Now, addressing, cringing, whining,
Vowing, fretting, weeping, pining,
Murm’ring, languishing, and sighing,
Mad, despairing, raving, dying:
Now, caressing, laughing, toying,
Fondling, kissing, and enjoying.
Always in Extreams abiding,
Without measure, fond, or chiding:
Either, furious, with possessing,
Or despairing of the Blessing:
Now, transported; now, tormented;
Still uneasy; ne’er contented.
None can tell its Rise, or Progress,
Or its Ingress, or its Egress,
Whether by a Look produced,
Or by Sympathy infused.
Fancy does so well maintain it,
Weaker Reason can’t restrain it,
But is forc’d to fly before it,
Or else worship and adore it.