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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  “Beneath a Cool Shade”

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

“Beneath a Cool Shade”

By Aphra Behn (1640–1689)
 
(1697)

BENEATH a cool shade, where some here have been,
Convenient for Lovers, most pleasant and green,
Alexis and Cloris lay pressing soft Flowers,
With Kissing and Loving they past the dull hours.
She close in his Arms with her head on his breast,        5
And fainting with pleasure; you guess at the rest:
She blusht and she sigh’d with a Joy beyond measure,
All ravisht with Billing and dying with Pleasure.
 
But while thus in Transports extended they lay,
A Handsome young Shepherd was passing that way.        10
She saw him and cry’d … oh, Alexis, betray’d!
Oh what have you done … you have ruin’d a Maid;
But the Shepherd, being modest, discreetly past by,
And left ’em again at their leisure to die.
And often they Languish’d with Joy beyond measure,        15
All Ravished with Billing and dying with Pleasure.