Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham

Song

1 Say, lovely dream! where couldst thou find
    Shades to counterfeit that face?
  Colours of this glorious kind
    Come not from any mortal place.

2 In heaven itself thou sure wert dress’d
    With that angel-like disguise:
  Thus deluded am I bless’d,
    And see my joy with closèd eyes.

3 But, ah! this image is too kind
    To be other than a dream;
  Cruel Saccharissa’s mind
    Never put on that sweet extreme!

4 Fair dream! if thou intend’st me grace,
    Change that heavenly face of thine;
  Paint despised love in thy face,
    And make it to appear like mine.

5 Pale, wan, and meagre let it look,
    With a pity-moving shape,
  Such as wander by the brook
    Of Lethe, or from graves escape.

6 Then to that matchless nymph appear,
    In whose shape thou shinest so;
  Softly in her sleeping ear,
    With humble words, express my woe.

7 Perhaps from greatness, state, and pride,
    Thus surprisèd she may fall;
  Sleep does disproportion hide,
    And, death resembling, equals all.