| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | The Indifferent | | By William Pattison (1706–1727) |
| | | IF from the lustre of the sun, | |
| To catch your fleeting shade you run, | |
| In vain is all your haste, Sir; | |
| But if your feet reverse the race, | |
| The fugitive will urge the chase, | 5 |
| And follow you as fast, Sir. | |
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| Thus, if at any time, as now, | |
| Some scornful Chloe you pursue, | |
| In hopes to overtake her; | |
| Be sure you ne’er too eager be, | 10 |
| But look upon’t as cold as she, | |
| And seemingly forsake her. | |
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| So I and Laura t’other day, | |
| Were coursing round a cock of hay, | |
| While I could ne’er o’er get her; | 15 |
| But, when I found I ran in vain, | |
| Quite tir’d I turn’d me back again, | |
| And, flying from her, met her. | | | | |
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