To This Moment a Rebel
To this moment a rebel I throw down my arms,
Great Love, at first sight of Olinda's bright charms.
Make proud and secure by such forces as these,
You may now play the tyrant as soon as you please.
When Innocence,
Beauty, and Wit do
To betray, and engage, and inflame my Desire,
Why should I decline what I cannot avoid?
And let pleasing Hope by base Fear be destroyed?
Her innocence cannot contrive to undo me,
Her beauty's inclined, or why should it pursue me?
And Wit has to Pleasure been ever a friend,
Then what room for Despair, since Delight is Love's end?
There can be no danger in sweetness and youth,
Where Love is secured by good nature and truth;
On her beauty I'll gaze and of pleasure
While every kind look adds a link to my chain.'Tis more to maintain than it was to surprise,
But her Wit leads in triumpth the slave of her eyes;
I beheld, with the loss of my freedom before,
But hearing, forever must serve and adore.
Too bright is my Goddess, her temple too weak:
Retire, divine image!
I feel my heart break.
Help,
Love!
I dissolve in a rapture of
At the thought of those joys I should meet in her arms.
Lord John Wilmot
Other author posts
My Dear Mistress Has a Heart
My dear mistress has a Soft as those kind looks she gave me, When with love's resistless art, And her eyes, she did enslave me;
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An age in her embraces Would seem a winter's day; When life and light, with envious haste, Are torn and snatched away
I cannot change as others do
I cannot change, as others do, Though you unjustly scorn; Since that poor swain that sighs for you, For you alone was born
The Imperfect Enjoyment
Naked she lay, clasped in my longing arms, I filled with love, and she all over charms; Both equally inspired with eager fire, Melting through kindness, flaming in desire