| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | A Song: “As Amoret and Thyrsis lay” | | By William Congreve (1670–1729) |
| | (From The Old Bachelor, 1693)
AS Amoret and Thyrsis lay, | |
| As Amoret and Thyrsis lay; | |
| Melting, melting, melting, melting the Hours in gentle play, | |
| Joining, joining, joining Faces, mingling Kisses, | |
| Mingling kisses, mingling kisses, and exchanging harmless Blisses: | 5 |
| He trembling cry’d with eager, eager haste, | |
| Let me, let me, let me feed, oh! oh! let me, let me, | |
| Let me, let me feed, oh! oh! oh! oh! let me, let me, let me Feed as well as Taste, | |
| I die, die, die, die, die, I die, | |
| I die, if I’m not wholly Blest. | 10 |
| |
| The fearful Nymph replied forbear, | |
| I cannot, dare not, must not hear; | |
| Dearest Thyrsis, do not move me, | |
| Do not, do not, if you Love me; | |
| Do not, do not, if you Love me; | 15 |
| O let me still, the Shepherd said, | |
| But while she fond resistance made, | |
| The hasty joy in struggling fled. | |
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| Vex’d at the Pleasure she had missed, | |
| She frowned and blush’d, and sigh’d and kissed, | 20 |
| And seemed to moan, in Sullen Cooing, | |
| The sad Miscarriage of their Wooing: | |
| But vain alas! were all her Charms, | |
| For Thyrsis deaf to Love’s alarms, | |
| Baffled and senseless, tired her Arms. | 25 | | | |
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