Community
- Good we must love, and must hate ill,
- For ill is ill, and good good still;
- But there are things indifferent,
- Which wee may neither hate, nor love,
- But one, and then another prove,
- As we shall find our fancy bent.
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- If then at first wise Nature had
- Made women either good or bad,
- Then some wee might hate, and some choose;
- But since she did them so create,
- That we may neither love, nor hate,
- Only this rests, all all may use.
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- If they were good it would be seen;
- Good is as visible as green,
- And to all eyes itself betrays.
- If they were bad, they could not last;
- Bad doth itself, and others waste;
- So they deserve nor blame, nor praise.
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- But they are ours as fruits are ours;
- He that but tastes, he that devours,
- And he that leaves all, doth as well;
- Changed loves are but changed sorts of meat;
- And when he hath the kernel eat,
- Who doth not fling away the shell?
From: Songs and Sonnets, 1633.
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