| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | The Defiance | | By Thomas Flatman (1637–1688) |
| | | BE not too proud, imperious dame, | |
| Your charms are transitory things, | |
| May melt, while you at heaven aim, | |
| Like Icarus’s waxen wings; | |
| And you a part in his misfortune bear | 5 |
| Drowned in a briny ocean of despair. | |
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| You think your beauties are above | |
| The poet’s brain and painter’s hand, | |
| As if upon the throne of love | |
| You only should the world command: | 10 |
| Yet know, though you presume your title true, | |
| There are pretenders that will rival you. | |
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| There’s an experienced rebel, Time, | |
| And in his squadron ’s Poverty; | |
| There’s Age that brings along with him | 15 |
| A terrible artillery: | |
| And if against all these thou keep’st thy crown, | |
| The usurper Death will make thee lay it down. | | | | |
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