Come again, sweet love doth now invite

Song Meaning

This song paints a vivid picture of unrequited love, where the narrator pleads for their beloved to return, lamenting the pain of their absence. The opening lines, "Come again! Sweet love doth now invite," immediately establish a tone of desperate longing. The narrator yearns for the physical and emotional closeness they once shared, detailing sensory experiences like touch and kiss as essential to their delight. The central tension lies in the beloved's "unkind disdain." The narrator contrasts their own state of mourning, sighing, weeping, and fainting with the beloved's refusal to offer grace. This stark opposition highlights the narrator's profound suffering, described as "deadly pain and endless misery," directly caused by the beloved's indifference. The lyrics masterfully employ natural imagery to convey emotional states. The sun, which should bring warmth, instead "frowns" and causes the narrator to "pine," while the beloved's smiles are linked to "springs" of joy, and their frowns to "Winters of woe." This personification of celestial bodies and seasons underscores the depth of the narrator's emotional dependence and the devastating impact of the beloved's rejection. The effectiveness of these lyrics stems from their raw emotional honesty and the precise, almost physical, descriptions of suffering. The narrator's faith remains true despite the beloved's "heart of flint," a powerful image of unyielding coldness. The final stanza reveals a tragic irony: the narrator's own passionate sighs and tears, meant to express love, are perceived by the beloved as mere attempts to "tempt" her, leading her to "triumph" in his pain.