The Poetical Works of Robert Lloyd ... To Which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author. By W. Kenrick ... In Two Volumes |
 | I. |
|
|
| I. |
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| II. |
|
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| II. |
 | The Poetical Works of Robert Lloyd |  |
I would be honest and sincere,
But not a slatterer, or severe.
Need I be surly, rough, uncouth,
That folks may think I love the truth?
And She, good dame, with Beauty's Queen,
Was not at all times naked seen:
For every boy, with Prior, knows,
By accident she lost her cloaths,
When Falshood stole them to disguise
Her misbegotten brood of lies.
Why should the prudish Goddess dwell
Down at the bottom of a well,
But that she is in pitious fright,
Lest, rising up to mortal sight,
The modest world shou'd fleer and flout her,
With not a rag of cloaths about her?
Yet she might wear a proper dress
And keep her essence ne'ertheless.
So Delia's bosom still will rise,
And fascinate her lover's eyes,
Tho' round her ivory neck she draws,
The decent shade of specious gauze.
But not a slatterer, or severe.
Need I be surly, rough, uncouth,
That folks may think I love the truth?
And She, good dame, with Beauty's Queen,
Was not at all times naked seen:
For every boy, with Prior, knows,
By accident she lost her cloaths,
When Falshood stole them to disguise
Her misbegotten brood of lies.
Why should the prudish Goddess dwell
Down at the bottom of a well,
But that she is in pitious fright,
Lest, rising up to mortal sight,
The modest world shou'd fleer and flout her,
With not a rag of cloaths about her?
Yet she might wear a proper dress
And keep her essence ne'ertheless.
So Delia's bosom still will rise,
And fascinate her lover's eyes,
Tho' round her ivory neck she draws,
The decent shade of specious gauze.
| The Poetical Works of Robert Lloyd | |