It Lies Not In Our Power

From the First Sestiad of Hero and Leander (1598), the opening of the passage from which the famous "at first sight" line follows. Marlowe argues that love operates entirely beyond rational will — we cannot choose whom we love or hate, because fate determines attraction before the will has any say. The poem remained unfinished at Marlowe's death in 1593 and was completed by his friend George Chapman; Marlowe wrote the first two of its six sestiads.