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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  A Song: “In vain, Clemene, you bestow”

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

A Song: “In vain, Clemene, you bestow”

By Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset (1638–1706)
 
(Contributed to Southerne’s Sir Anthony Love, 1691)

IN vain, Clemene, you bestow
  The promised empire of your heart:
If you refuse to let me know
  The wealthy charms of every part.
 
My passion with your kindness grew,        5
  Tho’ beauty gave the first desire:
But beauty only to pursue
  Is following a wand’ring fire.
 
As hills in perspective suppress
  The free enquiry of the sight;        10
Restraint makes every pleasure less
  And takes from love the full delight.
 
Faint kisses may in part supply
  Those eager longings of my soul;
But oh! I’m lost if you deny        15
  A quick possession of the whole.