Present in Absence
Anonymous · 1600
Public domain
From The Golden Treasury, selected by Francis Turner Palgrave. Anonymous. The text is free of copyright in the United States. This copy is the poem, without the Project Gutenberg header.
Absence, hear thou my protestation
Against thy strength,
Distance, and length:
Do what thou canst for alteration:
For hearts of truest mettle
Absence doth join, and Time doth settle.
Who loves a mistress of such quality,
He soon hath found
Affection's ground
Beyond time, place, and all mortality.
To hearts that cannot vary
Absence is Presence, Time doth tarry.
By absence this good means I gain,
That I can catch her,
Where none can watch her,
In some close corner of my brain:
There I embrace and kiss her,
And so I both enjoy and miss her.