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

A Song: “Young I am and yet unskill’d”

Anonymous


(Late 18th Century) YOUNG I am and yet unskill’d
How to make a lover yield;
How to keep, and how to gain,
When to love, and when to feign.

Take me, take me some of you	5
While I yet am young and true;
E’re I can my soul disguise,
Heave my breasts, and roll my eyes.

Stay not till I learn the way
How to lie and to betray;	10
He that has me first is blest,
For I may deceive the rest.

Could I find a blooming youth
Full of love, and full of truth,
Brisk, and of a jaunty mien,	15
I should long to be fifteen.