| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | Song: ‘When Delia on the plain appears’ | | By George, Lord Lyttelton (1709–1773) |
| | | WHEN Delia on the plain appears, | |
| Awed by a thousand tender fears, | |
| I would approach, but dare not move: | |
| Tell me, my heart, if this be love? | |
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| Whene’er she speaks, my ravish’d ear | 5 |
| No other voice than hers can hear, | |
| No other wit but hers approve: | |
| Tell me, my heart, if this be love? | |
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| If she some other youth commend, | |
| Though I was once his fondest friend, | 10 |
| His instant enemy I prove: | |
| Tell me, my heart, if this be love? | |
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| When she is absent, I no more | |
| Delight in all that pleased before— | |
| The clearest spring, or shadiest grove: | 15 |
| Tell me, my heart, if this be love? | |
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| When fond of power, of beauty vain, | |
| Her nets she spread for every swain, | |
| I strove to hate, but vainly strove: | |
| Tell me, my heart, if this be love? | 20 | | | |
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