How Sweet it is to Love by John Dryden
b"Dryden read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\\n\\n---------------------------------------------\\n\\nHow Sweet it is to Love\\nby John Dryden (1631 \\u2013 1700)\\n\\n(John Dryden became Poet Laureate on this day \\u2013 13 April \\u2013 in 1668.)\\n\\nAh, how sweet it is to love!\\n Ah, how gay is young Desire!\\nAnd what pleasing pains we prove\\n When we first approach Love's fire!\\nPains of love be sweeter far\\nThan all other pleasures are.\\n\\nSighs which are from lovers blown\\n Do but gently heave the heart:\\nEv'n the tears they shed alone\\n Cure, like trickling balm, their smart:\\nLovers, when they lose their breath,\\nBleed away in easy death.\\n\\nLove and Time with reverence use,\\n Treat them like a parting friend;\\nNor the golden gifts refuse\\n Which in youth sincere they send:\\nFor each year their price is more,\\nAnd they less simple than before.\\n\\nLove, like spring-tides full and high,\\n Swells in every youthful vein;\\nBut each tide does less supply,\\n Till they quite shrink in again:\\nIf a flow in age appear,\\n'Tis but rain, and runs not clear."