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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  432. A Hue and Cry after Fair Amoret

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

William Congreve. 1670–1729

432. A Hue and Cry after Fair Amoret

FAIR Amoret is gone astray— 
  Pursue and seek her, ev’ry lover; 
I’ll tell the signs by which you may 
  The wand’ring Shepherdess discover. 
 
Coquette and coy at once her air,         5
  Both studied, tho’ both seem neglected; 
Careless she is, with artful care, 
  Affecting to seem unaffected. 
 
With skill her eyes dart ev’ry glance, 
  Yet change so soon you’d ne’er suspect them,  10
For she’d persuade they wound by chance, 
  Tho’ certain aim and art direct them. 
 
She likes herself, yet others hates 
  For that which in herself she prizes; 
And, while she laughs at them, forgets  15
  She is the thing hat she despises.