| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | For Ever, Fortune, Wilt Thou Prove | | By James Thomson (1700–1748) |
| | | FOR ever, Fortune, wilt thou prove | |
| An unrelenting foe to Love, | |
| And when we meet a mutual heart | |
| Come in between, and bid us part? | |
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| Bid us sigh on from day to day, | 5 |
| And wish and wish the soul away; | |
| Till youth and genial years are flown, | |
| And all the life of life is gone? | |
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| But busy, busy, still art thou, | |
| To bind the loveless joyless vow, | 10 |
| The heart from pleasure to delude, | |
| To join the gentle to the rude. | |
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| For pomp, and noise, and senseless show, | |
| To make us Nature’s joys forego, | |
| Beneath a gay dominion groan, | 15 |
| And puts the golden fetter on! | |
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| For once, O Fortune, hear my prayer, | |
| And I absolve thy future care; | |
| All other blessings I resign, | |
| Make but the dear Amanda mine. | 20 | | | |
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