SONG IV. Anna Laetitia Barbauld (née Aikin) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T236 K019955.000 Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia), 1743-1825. Poems. London printed for Joseph Johnson 1773 pp. 66-76. vi,138p. ; 4⁰.

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SONG IV . WHEN gentle CELIA first I knew , A breast so good , so kind , so true , Reason and taste approv'd ; Pleas'd to indulge so pure a flame , I call'd it by too soft a name , And fondly thought I lov'd . Till CHLORIS came , with sad surprise I felt the light'ning of her eyes Thro' all my senses run ; All glowing with resistless charms , She fill'd my breast with new alarms , I saw , and was undone . O CELIA ! dear unhappy maid , Forbear the weakness to upbraid Which ought your scorn to move ; I know this beauty false and vain , I know she triumphs in my pain , Yet still I feel I love . Thy gentle smiles no more can please , Nor can thy softest friendship ease The torments I endure ; Think what that wounded breast must feel Which truth and kindness cannot heal , Nor even thy pity cure . Oft shall I curse my iron chain , And wish again thy milder reign With long and vain regret ; All that I can , to thee I give , And could I still to reason live I were thy captive yet . But passion's wild impetuous sea Hurries me far from peace and thee ; 'Twere vain to struggle more : Thus the poor sailor slumbering lies , While swelling tides around him rise , And push his bark from shore . In vain he spreads his helpless arms , His pitying friends with fond alarms In vain deplore his state ; Still far and farther from the coast , On the high surge his bark is tost , And foundering yields to fate .