Poems by Mrs. Opie :: :: University of Virginia Library

Yes,....sweet is the joy when our blushes impart
The youthful affection that glows in the heart,
If prudence, and duty, and reason approve
The timid delight of the virgin's first love.

But if the fond virgin be destined to feel
A passion she must in her bosom conceal,
Lest parents relentless the flame disapprove,...
Where's then the delight of the virgin's first love?

118

If stolen the glance by which love is exprest,
If sighs when half heaved be with terror supprest,
If whispers of passion suspicion must move,
Where's then the delight of the virgin's first love?

Or if (ah! too faithful!) with fondness she sighs
For one who has ceased her affection to prize,
Forgetting the vows by whose magic he strove
To gain that rich treasure the virgin's first love,....

If tempted by interest he venture to shun
The gentle affection his tenderness won,
Through passion's soft maze with another to rove,....
Where's then the delight of the virgin's first love?

119

Her eye, when the tale of his treachery she hears,
Now beams with disdain, and now glistens with tears;
Ah! what can the arrow then rankling remove?
Farewell the delight of the virgin's first love!

And see, sad companion of mental distress,
Disease steals upon her in health's flattering dress:
Oh! surely that bloom every fear should remove!
Ah! no;....seek its cause in the virgin's first love.

Still brighter the colour appears on her cheek,
Her eye boasts a lustre no language can speak;....
But vain are the hopes these appearances move,
Fond parent! they spring from the virgin's first love.

120

And soon, while unconscious that fate hovers near,
While hope's flattering smiles on her features appear,
No struggle, no groan, his approaches to prove,
Death ends the fond dream of the virgin's first love.