| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | Chloe’s Triumph | | By Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough (1658–1735) |
| | | I SAID to my heart, between sleeping and waking, | |
| ‘Thou wild thing, that always art leaping or aching, | |
| What black, brown, or fair, in what clime, in what nation, | |
| By turns has not taught thee a pit-a-pat-ation?’ | |
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| Thus accused, the wild thing gave this sober reply: | 5 |
| ‘See the heart without motion though Cœlia pass by; | |
| Not the beauty she has, nor the wit that she borrows, | |
| Gives the eye any joys, or the heart any sorrows. | |
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| ‘When our Sappho appears, she whose wit so refined | |
| I am forced to applaud with the rest of mankind, | 10 |
| Whatever she says is with spirit and fire; | |
| Every word I attend—but I only admire. | |
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| ‘Prudentia as vainly would put in her claim; | |
| Ever gazing on heaven, though man is her aim. | |
| ’Tis love, not devotion, that turns up her eyes; | 15 |
| Those stars of this world are too good for the skies. | |
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| ‘But Chloe so lively, so easy, so fair— | |
| Her wit so genteel, without art, without care; | |
| When she comes in my way, the motion, the pain, | |
| The leapings, the achings, return all again.’ | 20 |
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| O wonderful creature! a woman of reason; | |
| Never grave out of pride, never gay out of season. | |
| When so easy to guess who this angel should be, | |
| Would one think Mrs. Howard ne’er dreamt it was she? | | | | |
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