You faithless boy, persuade you me to reason? With virtue do you answer my affection? Virtue, which you with livery and seisin Have sold and changed out of your protection. When you lay flattering in sweet Myra's eyes, And played the wanton both with worth and pleasure, In beauty's field you told me virtue dies, Excess and infinite in love was measure. I took your oath of dalliance and desire, Myra did so inspire me with her graces, But like a wag that sets the straw on fire, You running to do harm in other places, Sware what is felt with hand, or seen with eye, As mortal, must feel sickness, age, and die. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOHENLINDEN by THOMAS CAMPBELL A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 15 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN FOUR THINGS [TO DO] by HENRY VAN DYKE VERSES WRITTEN IN THE LEAVES OF AN IVORY POCKET-BOOK by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD HARMONIE DU SOIR by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE LETHE. A BALLAD by JAMES HAY BEATTIE |