dots-menu
×

Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  The Jilts

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

The Jilts

Anonymous
 
(From Pills to Purge Melancholy, c. 1720)

ON a Bank in flow’ry June,
  When Groves are green and gay,
In a smiling Afternoon,
  With Doll young Willy lay:
They thought none were to spy ’em,        5
But Nell stood list’ning by ’em;
  Oh fie! Doll cried, no, I vow, I’d rather die;
Than wrong my Modesty:
Quoth Nell, that I shall see.
 
Smarting pain the Virgin finds,        10
  Although by Nature taught,
When she first to Man inclines;
  Quoth Nell I’ll venture that.
Then who would loose a Treasure
For such a puny Pleasure?        15
  Not I, not I, no, a Maid I’ll live and die,
And to my Vow be true:
Quoth Nell, the more fool you.
 
To my Closet I’ll repair,
  And Godly Books peruse;        20
Then devote my self to Pray’r,
  Quoth Nell, and —— use;
You Men are all perfidious,
But I will be Religious.
  Try all, fly all, whil’st I have Breath deny ye all,        25
For the Sex I now despise:
  Quoth Nell, and G—d she lies.
 
Youthful Blood o’erspreads her Face,
  When Nature prompts to Sin:
Modesty ebbs out apace,        30
  And love as fast flows in:
The Swain that heard this schooling,
Ashamed, left off his fooling;
  Kill me, kill me, now I am ruined, let me die:
You have damned my Soul to Hell;        35
Try her once again, cries Nell.