[Page 35]

ODE.

I.
1 IF rightly tuneful bards decide,
2 If it be six'd in love's decrees,
3 That beauty ought not to be tried
4 But by its native power to please,
5 Then tell me, youths and lovers, tell,
6 What fair can Amoret excell?
II.
7 Behold that bright unsullied smile,
8 And wisdom speaking in her mien:
9 Yet (she so artless all the while,
10 So little studious to be seen)
11 We nought but instant gladness know,
12 Nor think to whom the gift we owe.
III.
13 But neither music, nor the powers
14 Of youth and mirth and frolick cheer,
15 Add half that sunshine to the hours,
16 Or make life's prospect half so clear,
17 As memory brings it to the eye
18 From scenes where Amoret was by.
[Page 36]
IV.
19 Yet nor a satirist could there
20 Or fault or indiscretion find;
21 Nor any prouder sage declare
22 One virtue, pictur'd in his mind,
23 Whose form with lovelier colours glows
24 Than Amoret's demeanor shows.
V.
25 This sure is beauty's happiest part:
26 This gives the most unbounded sway:
27 This shall inchant the subject heart
28 When rose and lily fade away;
29 And She be still, in spite of time,
30 Sweet Amoret in all her prime.

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Title (in Source Edition): ODE.
Author: Mark Akenside
Themes: virtue; vice; beauty
Genres: ode
References: DMI 27809

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Source edition

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. VI. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 35-36. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.006) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)

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