William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.
To a Very Young LadySir Charles Sedley (16391701)
A
As unconcerned, as when
Your infant beauty could beget
No pleasure nor no pain.
And praised the coming day,
I little thought the growing fire
Must take my rest away.
Like metals in the mine;
Age from no face took more away,
Than youth concealed in thine.
To their perfection prest,
Fond love as unperceived did fly,
And in my bosom rest.
And Cupid at my heart,
Still, as his mother favoured you,
Threw a new flaming dart.
To make a lover, he
Employed the utmost of his art—
To make a beauty, she.
Uncertain of my fate,
If your fair self my chains approve,
I shall my freedom hate.
At first disordered be;
Since none alive can truly tell
What fortune they must see.