On Greenland Ice shall Roses grow

The author of The last time I came o’er the moor, a short poem published in 1670 (amongst a collection in the British Library) evoked melting icecaps as an improbability, to show how much he loved his mistress:

In all my Soul there’s not one Place
To let a Rival enter;
Since she outshines in every Grace,
In her my Love shall center:
Sooner the Sea shall cease to flow,
Its Waves the Alps shall cover,
On Greenland Ice shall Roses grow,
Before I cease to love her.

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