Comic Tales and Lyrical Fancies including The Chessiad, a Mock-Heroic, in Five Cantos; and The Wreath of Love, in Four Cantos. By C. Dibdin, the Younger |
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ON A PRETTY COQUETTE. |
 | Comic Tales and Lyrical Fancies |  |
244
ON A PRETTY COQUETTE.
Delia has eyes, and uses them;
Prenez garde, m'amie!
No one power refuses 'em,
But pow'r o'erpow'r'd may be;
And Delia, list: who bend the bow
And arrows shoot at random,
A silly bird may hit or so,
But sly ones understand 'em;
And, as they fly, the archer mock,
And—as the cuckoo in the clock
Reminds us of Time's flying—
A hint to folly—Delia, so,
The birds, secure, off chirping go,
The archer's skill defying:
Some silly bird, perhaps, is caught,
And silly bird's not worth a thought.
Prenez garde, m'amie!
No one power refuses 'em,
But pow'r o'erpow'r'd may be;
And Delia, list: who bend the bow
And arrows shoot at random,
A silly bird may hit or so,
But sly ones understand 'em;
And, as they fly, the archer mock,
And—as the cuckoo in the clock
Reminds us of Time's flying—
A hint to folly—Delia, so,
The birds, secure, off chirping go,
The archer's skill defying:
Some silly bird, perhaps, is caught,
And silly bird's not worth a thought.
245
Delia has eyes, and uses them—
Prenez garde, m'amie!—
Eyes as his books Love chooses them:
Should they light reading be?
For he who reads not generously
Some casual expression
May find whose meaning he may see
At variance with discretion.
Some roguish eye may catch the beam
Which Delia darts (per chance, 'twould seem)—
And haply may see through it:
That roguish eye may own, mayhap,
A roguish heart; in her own trap
Poor Delia caught may rue it—
Herself, the silly bird, be caught;
And silly bird's not worth a thought.
Prenez garde, m'amie!—
Eyes as his books Love chooses them:
Should they light reading be?
For he who reads not generously
Some casual expression
May find whose meaning he may see
At variance with discretion.
Some roguish eye may catch the beam
Which Delia darts (per chance, 'twould seem)—
And haply may see through it:
That roguish eye may own, mayhap,
A roguish heart; in her own trap
Poor Delia caught may rue it—
Herself, the silly bird, be caught;
And silly bird's not worth a thought.
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