Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham

Of Sylvia

1 Our sighs are heard; just Heaven declares
  The sense it has of lovers’ cares;
  She that so far the rest outshined,
  Sylvia the fair, while she was kind,
  As if her frowns impair’d her brow,
  Seems only not unhandsome now.
  So, when the sky makes us endure
  A storm, itself becomes obscure.

2 Hence ’tis that I conceal my flame,
  Hiding from Flavia’s self her name,
  Lest she, provoking Heaven, should prove
  How it rewards neglected love.
  Better a thousand such as I,
  Their grief untold, should pine and die;
  Than her bright morning, overcast
  With sullen clouds, should be defaced.