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Home  »  The Book of Restoration Verse  »  Francis Atterbury (1662–1732)

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.

Written on a White Fan Borrowed from Miss Osborne, Afterwards His Wife

Francis Atterbury (1662–1732)

FLAVIA the least and slighted toy

Can with resistless art employ:

This fan in meaner hands would prove

An engine of small force in love;

Yet she with graceful air and mien,

Not to be told or safely seen,

Directs its wanton motions so

That it wounds more than Cupid’s bow;

Gives coolness to the matchless dame,

To every other breast—a flame.