Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham

While I Listen to Thy Voice

1 While I listen to thy voice,
    Chloris! I feel my life decay;
  That powerful noise
    Calls my fleeting soul away.
  Oh! suppress that magic sound,
    Which destroys without a wound.

2 Peace, Chloris! peace! or singing die,
  That together you and I
  To heaven may go;
  For all we know
  Of what the blessed do above,
  Is, that they sing, and that they love.