William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.
To Apollo Making LoveThomas Tickell (16861740)
I
And panting for breath, the coy maiden pursued,
When his wisdom, in manner most ample, exprest,
The long list of the graces his godship possest:
Nor for lays, nor sweet song, the fair fugitive stays;
I’m the god of the harp—stop my fairest—in vain;
Nor the harp, nor the harper could fetch her again.
God of light I’m above, and of physic below:
At the dreadful word physic, the nymph fled more fast;
At the fatal word physic she doubled her haste.
Bid her view the young bloom, and thy ravishing rays,
Tell her less of thy knowledge, and more of thy charms,
And, my life for’t, the damsel will fly to thy arms.