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ODE III. Against SUSPICION.

1 O Fly! 'Tis dire SUSPICION'S mien;
2 And, meditating plagues unseen,
3 The sorc'ress hither bends:
4 Behold her torch in gall imbrued:
5 Behold her garments drop with blood
6 Of lovers and of friends.
7 Fly far! Already in your eyes
8 I see a pale suffusion rise;
9 And soon thro' every vein,
10 Soon will her secret venom spread,
11 And all your heart and all your head
12 Imbibe the potent stain.
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13 Then come the hours of shame and fear;
14 Then hints of horror seize your ear;
15 While gleams of lost delight
16 Raise the deep discord of the brain,
17 As light'ning shines along the main
18 Thro' whirlwinds and thro' night.
19 No more can faith or candor move;
20 But each ingenuous deed of love
21 Which once you would applaud,
22 Now, smiing o'er her dark distress,
23 Malignant fancy longs to dress
24 Like injury and fraud.
25 Farewell to virtue's peaceful times!
26 for soon you'll stoop to act the crimes
27 You thus can stoop to fear:
28 When vice begins her ugly train
29 With wrongs of such unmanly stain,
30 What horrors form the rear!
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31 'Tis thus, to work her baleful pow'r,
32 SUSPICION waits the sullen hour
33 Of fretfulness and strife,
34 When care th' infirmer bosom wrings,
35 Or EURUS shakes his gloomy wings
36 To damp the seats of life.
37 But come, forsake the scene unblest,
38 Which first beheld your candid breast,
39 To groundless fears a prey;
40 Come, where with my prevailing lyre
41 The skies, the streams, the groves conspire
42 To charm your doubts away.
43 Thron'd in the sun's descending car,
44 What Pow'r unseen diffuses far
45 This tenderness of mind?
46 What Genius smiles on every flood?
47 What GOD, in whispers from the wood,
48 Bids every heart be kind?
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49 O thou, whate'er thy awful name,
50 Whose breath awak'd th' immortal flame
51 That moves my active veins;
52 Thou, who by fair affection's ties
53 Hast doubled all my future joys,
54 And half disarm'd my pains;
55 Let universal CANDOUR still,
56 Clear as yon heav'n-reflefting rill,
57 Preserve my open mind;
58 Nor THIS, nor THAT man's crooked views,
59 One mean or cruel doubt infuse
60 To injure human kind.

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Title (in Source Edition): ODE III. Against SUSPICION.
Author: Mark Akenside
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Genres: ode

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Akenside, Mark, 1721-1770. Odes on several subjects. London: printed for R. Dodsley. And sold by M. Cooper. M.DCC.XLV., 1745, pp. 15-18. 54p.; 4⁰. (ESTC T42068; OTA K027268.000) (Page images digitized by University of California Libraries.)

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