| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | The Fair Singer | | By Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) |
| | | TO make a final conquest of all me, | |
| Love did compose so sweet an enemy, | |
| In whom both beauties to my death agree, | |
| Joining themselves in fatal harmony, | |
| That, while she with her eyes my heart does bind, | 5 |
| She with her voice might captivate my mind. | |
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| I could have fled from one but singly fair; | |
| My disentangled soul itself might save, | |
| Breaking the curlèd trammels of her hair; | |
| But how should I avoid to be her slave, | 10 |
| Whose subtle art invisibly can wreathe | |
| My fetters of the very air I breathe? | |
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| It had been easy fighting in some plain, | |
| Where victory might hang in equal choice, | |
| But all resistence against her is vain, | 15 |
| Who has the advantage both of eyes and voice; | |
| And all my forces needs must be undone, | |
| She having gainèd both the wind and sun. | | | | |
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