T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Song: Whilst Strephon in his pride of youth
Anonymous(From The Cupid, 1736) WHILST Strephon in his pride of youth, | |
To me alone profess’d | |
Dissembled passion, dress’d like truth, | |
He triumph’d in my breast. | |
I lodged him near my yielding heart, | 5 |
Denied him not my arms; | |
Deluded by his pleasing art, | |
Transported with his charms. | |
The wanderer now I lose, or share | |
With every lovely maid: | 10 |
Who makes the Heart of man her care, | |
Shall have her own betray’d. | |
Our charms on them we vainly prove, | |
And think we conquest gain; | |
Where one a victim falls to love, | 15 |
A thousand tyrants reign. | |