To POLLY LAURENCE, quitting the Pump. BATH, January 1756. William Hall Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
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Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T131163 K104099.005 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] p. 308. 6v.: music; 8⁰.

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To POLLY LAURENCE , quitting the Pump . BATH , January 1756. SPITE of beauty , air , and grace , With honour hast thou run thy race ! In sunshine well thy part thou'st play'd — Now , sweet Polly , seek the shade . The prudent general , tho' beat , Reaps honour from a good retreat ; But nobler thou , thy thousands kill'd , With flying colours leav'st the field . Let not retirement give the spleen , Thy sex's longing — to be seen : But teach the vicious and the vain , Their pleasure's but refining pain . Teach the gay by thy retreat , Eternal giggle is not wit ; And the formal fool advise , Prudery cannot make her wise . Take with thee to thy private state Th' applauses of the good and great ; The best reward below allow'd Of a conduct great and good .