[Page 60]

A Prayer to Venus in her Temple at Stowe.

To the Same.

I.
1 FAIR VENUS, whose delightful shrine surveys
2 Its front reflected in the silver lake,
3 These humble off'rings, which thy servant pays,
4 Fresh flowers, and myrtle wreaths, propitious take.
[Page 61]
II.
5 If less my love exceeds all other love,
6 Than Lucy's charms all other charms excel,
7 Far from my breast each soothing hope remove,
8 And there let sad despair for ever dwell.
III.
9 But if my soul is fill'd with her alone,
10 No other wish, nor other object knows,
11 Oh! make her, Goddess, make her all my own,
12 And give my trembling heart secure repose.
IV.
13 No watchful spies I ask to guard her charms,
14 No walls of brass, no steel-defended door;
15 Place her but once within my circling arms,
16 Love's surest fort, and I will doubt no more.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): A Prayer to Venus in her Temple at Stowe. To the Same.
Themes: love
Genres: lyric; prayer
References: DMI 22326

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Source edition

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. II. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 60-61. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.002) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.