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Mr. Cooke's Original Poems

with Imitations and Translations of Several Select Passages of the Antients, In Four Parts: To which are added Proposals For perfecting the English Language

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SATIRE the Second. Love and Old Age.
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144

SATIRE the Second. Love and Old Age.

When youthful Passion first assumes the Rein,
And grows predominant in ev'ry Vein,
Our dayly Fancys, and our nightly Dreams,
Are full of shady Groves and purling Streams;
Various Ideas all our Thoughts employ;
And first we revel in romantic Joy.
Nature grows fiercer as the Blood boils high,
Then on to more substantial Bliss we fly;
From Fair to Fair in Search of Prey we range,
Constant to Nothing but the Lust of Change:
Thus on we rove, while our Desires are strong,
Till sad Experience tells us we are wrong.
How weak the Efforts of our Reason prove,
When all the Soul is but a Flame of Love!
But what Allurements can the Soul betray
When the Blood only serves to warm the Clay?

145

Why will, in vain, the hoary Matron strive
To vy in Dress with Belles of twenty-five?
When sev'nty Years have furrow'd o'er her Face,
With all the Symptoms of a finish'd Race,
In vain with White she would confound the Grey;
Death will not be deceiv'd, nor give a Day.
Why all these Pains the wrinkled Brow to hide?
We thro the Mask can see the needless Pride.
No more frequent the Mall, the Box, the Ball,
Thou art memento mori to them all.