Summary

The speaker begins by asking his lover to let him cry. It is her beauty that creates them, because of the grief he feels at their parting.

He reflects that, normally, an artisan would be able to create something out of nothing. He uses the metaphor of a globe, on which a craftsman can create the image of the entire world, as long as he has a copy. This is subtly contrasted with the experience of the speaker, who is left with "nothing" in the absence of his lover (13). His tears can only "dissolve" the world, not create something (18).

He also compares her to the moon, which controls the tides. He asks the natural world to "forbear" the danger it might find in his example (20). He and his lover are so tied together that they might "haste[n] the others death" through their mutual sorrow...