Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

Song for a Girl

By John Dryden (1631–1700)

(From Love Triumphant) YOUNG I am, and yet unskill’d
How to make a Lover yield:
How to keep, or how to gain,
When to love; and when to feign.
Take me, take me, some of you,	5
While I yet am young and true;
E’re I can my soul disguise;
Heave my breasts, and roll my eyes.
Stay not till I learn the way,
How to lie, and to betray:	10
He that has me first, is blest,
For I may deceive the rest.
Cou’d I find a blooming youth,
Full of love, and full of truth,
Brisk, and of a jaunty mean	15
I should long to be fifteen.