T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Forgetful Mother
Anonymous(From Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1707) |
MY Mother she will not endure | |
| That I should Married be, | |
| Altho’ my Father do procure | |
| A Husband fit for me; | |
| Wherein she doth me much abuse, | 5 |
| My Father’s profer to refuse; | |
| For younger Maids than I are sped, | |
| And yet forsooth, I must not Wed. | |
| My Mother she breeds all the Jars, | |
| And ill she does me use, | 10 |
| And Love and Age breeds all the Wars, | |
| Which grieves me to refuse. | |
| Before she was as old as I, | |
| She with a Man six Weeks did lie; | |
| Judge you how much she doth me wrong, | 15 |
| To make me live a Maid so long. | |
| For now I am of lawful Years, | |
| A Twelve Month’s time and more, | |
| As by the Church-Book plain appears, | |
| Which doth my Age implore. | 20 |
| For now I am Sixteen years old, | |
| Why should I then be thus controlled, | |
| And discontent to lie alone; | |
| None knows my Grief, but by their own. | |
| I do believe in Heart and Mind, | 25 |
| There is no greater Pain | |
| Can fall upon us Woman-kind, | |
| And breedeth all our Pain, | |
| To lie alone, all by my self, | |
| It breeds Disease, instead of Health; | 30 |
| And shortly it will end my Days, | |
| For so I know the Doctor says. | |
| My Father’s Care I must commend, | |
| And Pains that he doth take; | |
| My Mother speaks not as a Friend, | 35 |
| That I shan’t have a Mate. | |
| Altho’ my Mother doth refuse | |
| That I my youthful time should use, | |
| I mean not long to stay un-wed, | |
| Nor yet to keep my Maiden-head. | 40 |