Poems upon several occasions with a voyage to the island of love : also The lover in fashion, being an account from Lydicus to Lysander of his voyage from the island of love / by Mrs. A. Behn ; to which is added a miscellany of new poems and songs, by several hands.
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Title
Poems upon several occasions with a voyage to the island of love : also The lover in fashion, being an account from Lydicus to Lysander of his voyage from the island of love / by Mrs. A. Behn ; to which is added a miscellany of new poems and songs, by several hands.
Author
Behn, Aphra, 1640-1689.
Publication
London :: Printed for Francis Saunders ...,
1697.
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Link to this Item
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A27316.0001.001
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"Poems upon several occasions with a voyage to the island of love : also The lover in fashion, being an account from Lydicus to Lysander of his voyage from the island of love / by Mrs. A. Behn ; to which is added a miscellany of new poems and songs, by several hands." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A27316.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 13, 2024.
Pages
To Alexis in Answer to his Poem against Fruition. ODE.
by Mrs. B.
AH hapless sex! who bear no charms,But what like lightning flash and are no more,False fires sent down for baneful harms,Fires which the fleeting Lover feebly warmsAnd given like past Beboches o're,Like Songs that please, (thô bad,) when new,But learn'd by heart neglected grew.
In vain did Heav'n adorn the shape and faceWith Beautyes which by Angels forms it drew:In vain the mind with brighter Glories Grace,While all our joys are stinted to the space
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Of one betraying enterview,With one surrender to the eager willWe 're short-liv'd nothing, or a real ill.
Since Man with that inconstancy was born,To love the absent, and the present scorn.Why do we deck, why do we dressFor such a short-liv'd happiness?Why do we put Attraction on,Since either way tis we must be undon?
They fly if Honour take our part,Our Virtue drives 'em o're the field.We lose 'em by too much desert,And Oh! they fly us if we yeild.Ye Gods! is there no charm in all the fairTo fix this wild, this faithless, wanderer.
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Man! our great business and our aim,For whom we spread our fruitless snares,No sooner kindles the designing flame,But to the next bright object bearsThe Trophies of his conquest and our shame:Inconstancy's the good supreamThe rest is airy Notion, empty Dream!
Then, heedless Nymph, be rul'd by meIf e're your Swain the bliss desire;Think like Alexis he may beWhose wisht Possession damps his fire;The roving youth in every shadeHas left some sighing and abandon'd Maid,For tis a fatal lesson he has learn'd,After fruition ne're to be concern'd.
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