[Page 213]

LYSANDER to CLOE.

1 'TIS true, my wish will never find
2 Another nymph so fair, so true;
3 Since all that's bright, and all that's kind,
4 In those expressive eyes I view.
5 And I with grateful zeal could haste
6 To China for the merest toy;
7 Could scorch on Lybia's barren waste,
8 To give my dear a moment's joy.
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9 But fickle as the wave or wind,
10 I once may flight those lovely arms;
11 Pardon a free ingenuous mind,
12 I do not half deserve thy charms.
13 If I in any praise excel,
14 'Tis in soft themes to paint my flame;
15 But Cloe's sweetness bids me tell,
16 I shall not long remain the same.
17 I know its season will expire,
18 Replac'd by cool esteem alone;
19 Nor more thy matchless breast admire
20 Than I detest and scorn my own.
21 This interval my fate allows,
22 And friendship dictates all I say;
23 O shun to hear my future vows,
24 When giddy love resumes the lay.
25 So some poor maniac can foresee
26 The random hours of madness nigh;
27 He mourns the fates' severe decree,
28 And cautions whom he loves to fly.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): LYSANDER to CLOE.
Author: William Shenstone
Themes: sex; relations between the sexes; love; grief; sadness; melancholy
Genres:
References: DMI 27853

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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. 213-214. 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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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.

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