| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | The Relapse | | By Thomas Stanley (1625–1678) |
| | | O TURN away those cruel eyes, | |
| The stars of my undoing! | |
| Or death, in such a bright disguise, | |
| May tempt a second wooing. | |
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| Punish their blindly impious pride, | 5 |
| Who dare contemn thy glory! | |
| It was my fall that deified | |
| Thy name, and seal’d thy story. | |
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| Yet no new sufferings can prepare | |
| A higher praise to crown thee; | 10 |
| Though my first death proclaim thee fair. | |
| My second will unthrone thee. | |
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| Lovers will doubt thou canst entice | |
| No other for thy fuel, | |
| And if thou burn one victim twice, | 15 |
| Both think thee poor and cruel! | | | | |
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