| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | “Why Is Your Faithful Slave Disdain’d?” | | Anonymous |
| | (From Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1707) |
|
WHY is your faithful Slave disdain’d? | |
| By gentle Arts my Heart you gain’d! | |
| Oh, keep it by the same! | |
| For ever shall my Passion last, | |
| If you will make me once possest, | 5 |
| Of what I dare not name. | |
| |
| Tho’ charming are your Wit and Face, | |
| ’Tis not alone to hear and gaze, | |
| That will suffice my Flame; | |
| Love’s Infancy on Hopes may live, | 10 |
| But you to mine full grown must give, | |
| Of what I dare not name. | |
| |
| When I behold your Lips, your Eyes, | |
| Those snowy Breasts that fall and rise, | |
| Fanning my raging Flame; | 15 |
| That Shape so made to be embraced, | |
| What would I give I might but taste, | |
| Of what I dare not name! | |
| |
| In Court I never wish to rise, | |
| Both Wealth and Honour I despise, | 20 |
| And that vain Breath called Fame; | |
| By Love, I hope no Crowns to gain, | |
| ’Tis something more I would obtain, | |
| ’Tis that I dare not name. | | | |
|
|
|
