T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Constancy in Love
By Aphra Behn (16401689)(From Poems, 1683) A CONSTANCY in love I’ll prize, | |
And be to beauty true; | |
And dote on all the lovely eyes, | |
That are but fair and new. | |
On Cloris charms today I’ll feed, | 5 |
Tomorrow Daphne move; | |
For bright Lucinda next I’ll bleed, | |
And still be true to love. | |
But glory only and renown | |
My serious hours shall charm; | 10 |
My nobler minutes those shall crown, | |
My loose hours, my flame. | |
All the fatigues of love I’ll hate, | |
And Phillis’s new charms | |
That hopeless fire shall dissipate, | 15 |
My heart for Cloe warms. | |
The easy Nymph I once enjoyed | |
Neglected now shall pass, | |
Possession, that has love destroyed | |
Shall make me pitiless. | 20 |
In vain she now attracts and mourns, | |
Her moving power is gone, | |
Too late (when once enjoyed) she burns, | |
And yielding, is undone. | |
My friend, the little charming boy | 25 |
Conforms to my desires, | |
And ’tis but to augment my joy | |
He pains me with his fires; | |
All that’s in happy love I’ll taste, | |
And rifle all his store, | 30 |
And for one Joy, that will not last, | |
He brings a thousand more. | |