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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  436. Song

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Thomas Parnell. 1670–1718

436. Song

WHEN thy beauty appears 
    In its graces and airs 
All bright as an angel new dropp’d from the sky, 
At distance I gaze and am awed by my fears: 
    So strangely you dazzle my eye!         5
 
    But when without art 
    Your kind thoughts you impart, 
When your love runs in blushes through every vein; 
When it darts from your eyes, when it pants in your heart, 
    Then I know you’re a woman again.  10
 
    There ‘s a passion and pride 
    In our sex (she replied), 
And thus, might I gratify both, I would do: 
Still an angel appear to each lover beside, 
    But still be a woman to you.  15