nigh

So many an honest fellow's fist

Had well-nigh wrung it from the wrist.

Hand, said I, since now we part

Just when she learns to roll a melting eye,

And hear a spark, yet think no danger nigh;

From the dear man unwilling she must sever,

So known, so honoured, at the House of Lords:

Conspicuous scene! another yet is nigh,

(More silent far) where kings and poets lie;

The stars that fall from Celia's eye,

Declare our doom in drawing nigh.

But when the days grew nigh that I should wed, 40

My father sent ambassadors with furs

There glowing ghost of flowers

Draw down, draw nigh;

And wings of swift spent hours

Feel where the dew fell that has hardly dried,

Hear how the blood beats that went nigh to swoon;

The pleasure lives there when the sense has died;

With our hearts going back to thee, they were filled with fire,

Were nigh to break.