The Land of Love :: :: University of Virginia Library

Fond Love, thy pretty Flatt'ries cease,
That feeble Hope you bring,
Unless 'twould make my Happiness,
Is but mere trifling.
In vain, dear Boy, in vain you strive,
It cannot keep my tortur'd Heart alive.

II.

Tho' thou should'st give me all the Joys
Luxurious Monarchs do possess;
Without Aminta, 'tis but empty Noise,
Dull and insipid Happiness:
And you in vain invite me to a Feast,
Where my Aminta cannot be a Guest.

III.

Ye glorious Trifles, I renounce you all,
Since she no Part of all your Splendor makes;
Let the dull Unconcern'd obey your Call;
Let the gay Fop, who his pert Courtship takes
For Love, while he prophanes that Diety,
Be charm'd, and pleas'd with all your Vanity.

IV.

But give me Leave, whose Soul's inspir'd
With sacred, but despairing, Love,
To die from all your Noise retir'd,
And bury'd lie within the silent Grove.
For whilst I live, my Soul's a Prey
To insignificant Desires;
Whilst thou, fond God of Love and Play,
With all thy boasted Darts and Fires;
With all thy wanton Flatt'ries can'st not charm,
Nor yet the frozen-hearted Virgin warm.

V.

Others by Absence quench their Fire,
Me it enrages more with Pain;
Each Thought of my Aminta blows it high'r,
And Distance strengthens my Desire;
I faint with wishing, since I wish in vain.
Either be gone, fond Love, or let me die;
Hopeless Desire admits no other Remedy.

Here 'twas the Height of Cruelty I prov'd,
By Absence from the sacred Maid I lov'd;

And here had dy'd, but that Love found a Way
A Letter from Aminta to convey;
Which did soft tender Marks of Pity give,
And hope enough to make we wish to live.

From Duty now the lovely Maid is freed,
And calls me from my lonely Solitude;
Whose cruel Mem'ry, in a Moment's Space,
The Thoughts of coming Pleasures quite deface.
With an impatient Lover's Haste I flew
To the vast Blessing Love had set in View:
But oh! I found Aminta in a Place
Where never any Lover happy was.