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A Love Letter To Her Husband

By Anne Bradstreet

Topics: classic

Phoebus make haste, the day's too long, begone,     The silent night's the fittest time for moan;     But stay this once, unto my suit give ear,     And tell my griefs in either Hemisphere:     (And if the whirling of thy wheels do n't drown'd     The woful accents of my doleful sound),     If in thy swift career thou canst make stay,     I crave this boon, this errand by the way:     Commend me to the man more lov'd than life,     Show him the sorrows of his widow'd wife,     My dumpish thoughts, my groans, my brackish tears,     My sobs, my longing hopes, my doubting fears,     And, if he love, how can he there abide?     My interest's more than all the world beside.     He that can tell the stars or Ocean sand,     Or all the grass that in the meads do stand,     The leaves in th' woods, the hail or drops of rain,     Or in a cornfield number every grain,     Or every mote that in the sunshine hops,     May court my sighs and number all my drops.     Tell him, the countless steps that thou dost trace,     That once a day thy spouse thou mayst embrace;     And when thou canst not treat by loving mouth,     Thy rays afar, salute her from the south.     But for one month I see no day (poor soul)     Like those far situate under the pole,     Which day by day long wait for thy arise,     O how they joy when thou dost light the skies.     O Phoebus, hadst thou but thus long from thine     Restrain'd the beams of thy beloved shine,     At thy return, if so thou couldst or durst,     Behold a Chaos blacker than the first.     Tell him here's worse than a confused matter,     His little world's a fathom under water,     Naught but the fervor of his ardent beams     Hath power to dry the torrent of these streams.     Tell him I would say more, but cannot well,     Opressed minds abrupted tales do tell.     Now post with double speed, mark what I say,     By all our loves conjure him not to stay.

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"Phoebus make haste, the day's too long, begone, ..."

This evocative piece by Anne Bradstreet, titled "A Love Letter To Her Husband", represents a masterful exploration of classic. The lines capture a profound emotional resonance... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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Author:Anne Bradstreet

"Phoebus make haste, the day's too long, begone, ..." by Anne Bradstreet

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Anne Bradstreet

About Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612–1672) was the first published poet of English America. Her collection "The Tenth Muse" (1650) explores domestic life, faith, and the New World experience, and she is considered the founding mother of American poetry.

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"Ask not why hearts turn Magazines of passions,    ..."

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