Gateway to the Classics: Oxford Book of English Verse, Part 3 by Arthur Quiller-Couch
 
Oxford Book of English Verse, Part 3 by  Arthur Quiller-Couch

Song

Ladies, though to your conquering eyes

Love owes his chiefest victories,

And borrows those bright arms from you

With which he does the world subdue,

Yet you yourselves are not above

The empire nor the griefs of love.


Then rack not lovers with disdain,

Lest Love on you revenge their pain:

You are not free because you're fair:

The Boy did not his Mother spare.

Beauty's but an offensive dart:

It is no armour for the heart.

— Sir George Etherege
1635–1691   


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