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Home  »  A Book of Women’s Verse  »  Song—The Vain Advice

J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921.

By Catharine Cockburn (1679–1749)

Song—The Vain Advice

AH, gaze not on those eyes! forbear

That soft enchanting voice to hear:

Not looks of basilisks give surer death,

Nor syrens sing with more destructive breath.

Fly, if thy freedom thou’dst maintain;

Alas! I feel, th’ advice is vain!

A heart, whose safety but in flight does lie,

Is too far lost to have the power to fly.