[Page 256]

The POET to his false Mistress.

By the same.
1 WONDER not, faithless woman, if you see,
2 Yourself so chang'd, so great a change in me.
3 With shame I own it, I was once your slave,
4 Ador'd myself the beauties which I gave;
5 For know, deceiv'd deceitful, that 'twas I
6 Gave thy form grace, and lustre to thine eye:
7 Thy tongue, thy fingers I their magic taught,
8 And spread the net in which myself was caught.
[Page 257]
9 So pagan priests first form and dress the wood,
10 Then prostrate fall before the senseless God.
11 But now, curst woman, thy last sentence hear:
12 I call'd thy beauty forth, I bid it disappear.
13 I'll strip thee of thy borrow'd plumes; undress,
14 And shew thee in thy native ugliness.
15 Those eyes have shone by me, by me that chin
16 The seat of wanton Cupids long has been:
17 Ye fires, go out — ye wanton Cupids, fly —
18 Of ev'ry beam disarm her haggard eye:
19 'Tis I recall ye; my known voice obey —
20 And nought of beauty but the falshood stay.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): The POET to his false Mistress.
Author: John Straight
Themes: women; female character
Genres: heroic couplet
References: DMI 27731

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Source edition

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. V. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 256-257. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.005) (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.