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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  A Song from “The Distresses”

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

A Song from “The Distresses”

By Sir William Davenant (1606–1668)
 
(1639)

  NONE but myself my heart did keep,
  When I on cowslips bed did sleep
    Near to a pleasant bog:
    Whilst you, my pretty rogue,
  With knuckle knocking at my breast,        5
  Did ask for my three-corner’d guest.
And whispering soft, as soft as voice could be,
Didst say come out thou little heart to me!
 
        A thousand fiends as black as soot,
        With all their dirty dams to boot,        10
        Take thee, O take thee every day
        For tempting my poor heart away.
 
  This heart for joy, from me did leap,
  And followed thee even step by step,
    Till tired it asked to rest        15
    A while within thy breast.
  ’Twas thick and fat, and plump before,
  Weighing a full pound and more,
But now alas, ’tis wasted to the skin,
And grows no bigger than the head of pin.        20
 
        A thousand fiends as black as soot,
        With all their dirty dams to boot,
        Take thee, O take thee every day
        For tempting my poor heart away.