Eternity Of Love Protested

By Thomas Carew

How ill doth he deserve a lover's name,

    Whose pale weak flame

    Cannot retain

His heat, in spite of absence or disdain;

But doth at once, like paper set on fire,

    Burn and expire;

True love can never change his seat,

Nor did her ever love, that could retreat.

That noble flame which my breast keeps alive

    Shall still survive

    When my soul's fled;

Nor shall my love die when my body's dead,

That shall wait on me to the lower shade,

    And never fade;

My very ashes in their urn

Shall, like a hallow'd lamp, forever burn.