| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | Those Arts Which Common Beauties Move | | By John Oldmixon (1673–1742) |
| | | THOSE arts which common beauties move, | |
| Corinna, you despise: | |
| You think there’s nothing wise in love | |
| Or eloquent in sighs. | |
| You laugh at ogle, cant, and song, | 5 |
| And promises abuse: | |
| But say—for I have courted long— | |
| What methods shall I use? | |
| |
| We must not praise your charms and wit, | |
| Nor talk of dart and flame; | 10 |
| But sometimes you can think it fit | |
| To smile at what you blame. | |
| Your sex’s forms, which you disown, | |
| Alas! you can’t forbear; | |
| But in a minute smile and frown, | 15 |
| Are tender and severe. | |
| |
| Corinna, let us now be free; | |
| No more your arts pursue, | |
| Unless you suffer me to be | |
| As whimsical as you. | 20 |
| At last the vain dispute desist, | |
| To love resign the field: | |
| ’Twas custom forced you to resist, | |
| And custom bids you yield. | | | | |
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