| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | To His Book | | By William Walsh (1663–1708) |
| | | GO, little book, and to the world impart | |
| The faithful image of an amorous heart: | |
| Those who love’s dear, deluding pains have known | |
| May in my fatal stories read their own. | |
| Those who have lived from all its torments free, | 5 |
| May find the thing they never felt, from me. | |
| Perhaps, advised, avoid the gilded bait, | |
| And, warned by my example, shun my fate. | |
| While with calm joy, safe landed on the coast, | |
| I view the waves on which I once was tost. | 10 |
| Love is a medley of endearments, jars, | |
| Suspicions, quarrels, reconcilements, wars; | |
| Then peace again. Oh! would it not be best | |
| To chase the fatal passion from our breast? | |
| But, since so few can live from passion free, | 15 |
| Happy the man, and only happy he, | |
| Who with such lucky stars begins his love, | |
| That his cool judgment does his choice approve. | |
| Ill-grounded passions quickly wear away; | |
| What’s built upon esteem can ne’er decay. | 20 | | | |
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