The Fair Singer

The Fair Singer

Original Text
Andrew Marvell, Miscellaneous Poems, ed. Mary Marvell (1681). Facs. edn.: Scolar Press, 1969. PR 3546 A1 1681A ROBA.
1To make a final conquest of all me,
2Love did compose so sweet an enemy,
3In whom both beauties to my death agree,
4Joining themselves in fatal harmony;
5That while she with her eyes my heart does bind,
6She with her voice might captivate my mind.
7I could have fled from one but singly fair,
8My disentangled soul itself might save,
9Breaking the curled trammels of her hair.
10But how should I avoid to be her slave,
11Whose subtle art invisibly can wreath
12My fetters of the very air I breathe?
13It had been easy fighting in some plain,
14Where victory might hang in equal choice,
15But all resistance against her is vain,
16Who has th'advantage both of eyes and voice,
17And all my forces needs must be undone,
18She having gained both the wind and sun.
Publication Start Year
1681
RPO poem Editors
N. J. Endicott
RPO Edition
3RP 1.359.
Rhyme