Go, perjured youth, and court what nymph you please, Your passion now is but a dull disease: With worn-out sighs deceive some listening ear, Who longs to know how 'tis and what men swear; She'll think they're new from you, 'cause so to her. Poor cozened fool, she ne'er can know the charms Of being first encircled in thy arms, When all love's joys were innocent and gay, As fresh and blooming as the newborn day. Your charms did then with native sweetness flow: The forced-kind complaisance you now bestow Is but a false, agreeable design, But you had innocence when you were mine, And all your words, and smiles, and looks divine. How proud, methinks, thy mistress does appear In sullied clothes, which I'd no longer wear; Her bosom too with withered flowers dressed, Which lost their sweets in my first-chosen breast. Perjured, imposing youth, cheat who you will, Supply defect of truth with amorous skill: Yet thy address must needs insipid be, For the first ardour of thy soul was all possessed by me. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE RIVER OF LIFE by THOMAS CAMPBELL SONNET: TO DANTE by GUIDO CAVALCANTI THE SOLDIER by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS EPITAPHS OF THE WAR, 1914-18: CONVOY ESCORT by RUDYARD KIPLING THE VIRGIN'S SLUMBER SONG by JOSEPH FRANCIS CARLIN MACDONNELL THE WOOD OF FLOWERS by JAMES STEPHENS |