dots-menu
×

Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  The Fright

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

The Fright

Anonymous
 
(From Songs, Comic, and Satyrical, by George Alexander Stevens, 1782)

ONE ev’ning alone in the grove,
  Miss sat on the side of the green,
She wonder’d at what they call Love,
  And what it was marry’d folks mean.
“All night how I tumble and toss,        5
  Yet neither want manner nor means;
Alas! must I live to my loss,
  And wither away in my teens?”
 
Young Rhodophil ran up the slope,
  As if he some sport had in view;        10
She trembl’d, betwixt Fear and Hope,
  Irresolute what she should do:
She saw him advance to her seat,
  She saw him, but could not away;
Love fix’d a large weight to her feet,        15
  Curiosity told her to stay.
 
Desire gave grace to his tongue,
  As lovers to lovers will speak;
Enamour’d, he over her hung,
  Then bow’d down his lips to her cheek:        20
He knelt, she attempted to rise,
  Tho’ ’twas but a feeble essay;
The wildness he wore in his eyes,
  So scar’d her she fainted away.