Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
John Dryden. 16311700402. Song to a Fair Young Lady, going out of the Town in the Spring
ASK not the cause why sullen Spring | |
So long delays her flowers to bear; | |
Why warbling birds forget to sing, | |
And winter storms invert the year: | |
Chloris is gone; and fate provides | 5 |
To make it Spring where she resides. | |
Chloris is gone, the cruel fair; | |
She cast not back a pitying eye: | |
But left her lover in despair | |
To sigh, to languish, and to die: | 10 |
Ah! how can those fair eyes endure | |
To give the wounds they will not cure? | |
Great God of Love, why hast thou made | |
A face that can all hearts command, | |
That all religions can invade, | 15 |
And change the laws of every land? | |
Where thou hadst plac’d such power before, | |
Thou shouldst have made her mercy more. | |
When Chloris to the temple comes, | |
Adoring crowds before her fall; | 20 |
She can restore the dead from tombs | |
And every life but mine recall. | |
I only am by Love design’d | |
To be the victim for mankind. |