Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.

Song: ‘When Delia on the plain appears’

George, Lord Lyttelton (1709–1773)

WHEN Delia on the plain appears,

Awed by a thousand tender fears,

I would approach, but dare not move:

Tell me, my heart, if this be love?

Whene’er she speaks, my ravish’d ear

No other voice than hers can hear,

No other wit but hers approve:

Tell me, my heart, if this be love?

If she some other youth commend,

Though I was once his fondest friend,

His instant enemy I prove:

Tell me, my heart, if this be love?

When she is absent, I no more

Delight in all that pleased before—

The clearest spring, or shadiest grove:

Tell me, my heart, if this be love?

When fond of power, of beauty vain,

Her nets she spread for every swain,

I strove to hate, but vainly strove:

Tell me, my heart, if this be love?