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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  The Silly Maids

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

The Silly Maids

Anonymous
 
(From Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1707)

MAIDS are grown so Coy of late,
  Forsooth they will not Marry;
Tho’ they’re in their Teens and past,
  They say they yet can tarry:
But if they knew how sweet a thing        5
  It is in Youth to Marry,
They would sell their Hose and Smock,
  E’re they so long would tarry.
 
Winter Nights are long, you know,
  And bitter cold the Weather,        10
Then who’s so fond to lie alone,
  When two may lie together?
And is’t not brave when Summer comes,
  With all the Fields inrolled,
To take a Green-Gown on the Grass,        15
  And wear it uncontrolled?
 
For she that is most Coy of all,
  If she had time and leisure,
Would lay away severest Thoughts,
  And turn to Mirth and Pleasure:        20
For why, the fairest Maid sometimes
  Puts on the Face of Folly,
And Maids do ne’er repent so much
  As when they are too Holy.