| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | Constancy in Love | | By Aphra Behn (1640–1689) |
| | (From Poems, 1683)
A CONSTANCY in love I’ll prize, | |
| And be to beauty true; | |
| And dote on all the lovely eyes, | |
| That are but fair and new. | |
| On Cloris charms today I’ll feed, | 5 |
| Tomorrow Daphne move; | |
| For bright Lucinda next I’ll bleed, | |
| And still be true to love. | |
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| But glory only and renown | |
| My serious hours shall charm; | 10 |
| My nobler minutes those shall crown, | |
| My loose hours, my flame. | |
| All the fatigues of love I’ll hate, | |
| And Phillis’s new charms | |
| That hopeless fire shall dissipate, | 15 |
| My heart for Cloe warms. | |
| |
| The easy Nymph I once enjoyed | |
| Neglected now shall pass, | |
| Possession, that has love destroyed | |
| Shall make me pitiless. | 20 |
| In vain she now attracts and mourns, | |
| Her moving power is gone, | |
| Too late (when once enjoyed) she burns, | |
| And yielding, is undone. | |
| |
| My friend, the little charming boy | 25 |
| Conforms to my desires, | |
| And ’tis but to augment my joy | |
| He pains me with his fires; | |
| All that’s in happy love I’ll taste, | |
| And rifle all his store, | 30 |
| And for one Joy, that will not last, | |
| He brings a thousand more. | | | | |
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