To Philaster
To Philaster
Original Text
Sarah Fyge Egerton, Poems on Several Occasions (1703) (Delmar: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1987), pp. 34-35. PR 3431 E3P6 1987 Robarts Library.
1Go perjur'd Youth and court what Nymph you please,
2Your Passion now is but a dull disease;
3With worn-out Sighs decieve some list'ning Ear,
4Who longs to know how 'tis and what Men swear;
5She'll think they're new from you; 'cause so to her.
7Of being first encircled in thy Arms,
8When all Love's Joys were innocent and gay,
9As fresh and blooming as the new-born day.
10Your Charms did then with native Sweetness flow;
12Is but a false agreeable Design,
13But you had Innocence when you were mine,
14And all your Words, and Smiles, and Looks divine.
15How proud, methinks, thy Mistress does appear
16In sully'd Clothes, which I'd no longer wear ;
17Her Bosom too with wither'd Flowers drest,
18Which lost their Sweets in my first chosen Breast ;
19Perjur'd imposing Youth, cheat who you will,
22For the first Ardour of thy Soul was all possess'd by me.
Notes
6] cousin'd: deceived. Back to Line
11] Complaisance: willingness to please. Back to Line
20] Truth: faithfulness. Back to Line
21] insipid: feeble. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1703
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Form