Nisida to sing,--to write
Mine,--and thine to adore thy beauty.
Which of these three occupations
Is the best--or those that need
Skill and labour to succeed,
Or thine own vain contemplations?--
Have I not, when morning's rays
Gladdened grove and vale and mountain,
Seen thee in the crystal fountain
At thyself enamoured gaze?
Wherefore, once again returning
To our argument of love,
Thou a greater pang must prove,
If from thy insatiate yearning
I infer a cause: the spell
Lighter falls on one who still,
To herself not feeling ill,
Would in other eyes seem well.

DARIA.
Ah! so far, so far from me
Is the wish as vain as weak--
(Now my virtue doth not speak,
Now but speaks my vanity),
Ah! so far, I say, my breast
Turns away from things of love,
That the sovereign hand of Jove,
Were it to attempt its best,
Could no greater wonder work,
Than that I, Daria, should