T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Dream
Anonymous(From The Musical Miscellany, [c. 1729]; the music by Handel) |
BENEATH a shady Willow, | |
Hard by a purling Stream, | |
A Mossy Bank my Pillow, | |
I fancy’d in a Dream, | |
That I the charming Phillis | 5 |
Did eagerly embrace; | |
Her Breast as white as Lillies, | |
And Rosamonda’s Face. | |
What ecstasies of Pleasure | |
She gave, to tell’s in vain, | 10 |
When with the hidden Treasure | |
She blest her am’rous Swain: | |
Could nought our Joys discover, | |
And I my Dream believe, | |
I so could sleep for ever, | 15 |
And still be so deceived. | |
But when I waked, deluded, | |
And found all but a Dream, | |
I fain would have eluded | |
The melancholy Theme. | 20 |
Ye Gods! there’s no enduring | |
So exquisite a Pain; | |
The Wound is past all curing, | |
That Cupid gave the Swain. | |