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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  Song from “The Old Bachelor”

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

Song from “The Old Bachelor”

By William Congreve (1670–1729)
 
THUS, to a ripe consenting maid,
Poor, old, repenting Delia said:—
Would you long preserve your lover?
  Would you still his goddess reign?
Never let him all discover,        5
  Never let him much obtain.
 
Men will admire, adore, and die,
While wishing at your feet they lie:
But admitting their embraces
  Wakes ’em from the golden dream;        10
Nothing’s new besides our faces,
  Every woman is the same.