William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | To a Very Young Lady | By Sir Charles Sedley (16391701) |
| AH, Chloris! that I now could sit | |
As unconcerned, as when | |
Your infant beauty could beget | |
No pleasure nor no pain. | |
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When I the dawn used to admire, | 5 |
And praised the coming day, | |
I little thought the growing fire | |
Must take my rest away. | |
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Your charms in harmless childhood lay, | |
Like metals in the mine; | 10 |
Age from no face took more away, | |
Than youth concealed in thine. | |
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But as your charms insensibly | |
To their perfection prest, | |
Fond love as unperceived did fly, | 15 |
And in my bosom rest. | |
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My passion with your beauty grew, | |
And Cupid at my heart, | |
Still, as his mother favoured you, | |
Threw a new flaming dart. | 20 |
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Each gloried in their wanton part: | |
To make a lover, he | |
Employed the utmost of his art | |
To make a beauty, she. | |
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Though now I slowly bend to love, | 25 |
Uncertain of my fate, | |
If your fair self my chains approve, | |
I shall my freedom hate. | |
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Lovers, like dying men, may well | |
At first disordered be; | 30 |
Since none alive can truly tell | |
What fortune they must see. | | | |
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