John Dryden (1631–1700). The Poems of John Dryden. 1913.
Songs, Odes, and Lyrical PiecesA Song to a Fair Young Lady going out of Town in the Spring
So long delays her flow’rs to bear;
Why warbling Birds forget to sing,
And Winter Storms invert the Year?
Chloris is gone; and Fate provides
To make it Spring, where she resides.
She cast not back a pitying Eye:
But left her Lover in Despair,
To sigh, to languish, and to die:
Ah, how can those fair Eyes endure
To give the wounds they will not cure!
A Face that can all Hearts command,
That all Religions can invade,
And change the Laws of ev’ry Land?
Where thou hadst plac’d such Pow’r before,
Thou shou’dst have made her Mercy more.
Adoring Crowds before her Fall;
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.