ODE VI.
[Noe more!]
1
Noe more!
Let me awhile be free,
To my dear Muses; exercise your power
On other men, not me;
I am a freeman; know,
I am my Selfe; and you
Can but pretend, (at best) for what you fight;
Long vsurpation cannot give you right.
2
'Tis mine,
The heart you would Subdue,
And Challenge, by prescription, in a twine
Of many years, to you;
I will, in the high Court
Of Iustice, make report,
Of my Sad Case, and beg, on bended knees,
I may have right, from Him who all wrong Sees.
3
'Tis true,
You entred by a sleight,
Vpon my simple nonage; for you drew
A faire pretext of right;
Few freinds (God wot) I had,
To give advice or ayde;
But I must yeild my Earlie years, to those
Who strangers were, and were, indeed, my foes.
4
Now, Man,
Shall I be Slavéd Still?
And kept a Child, with Trifles? Noe, I can
Not Soe forget the Skill
By nature lent; my years
Are now past Childish fears,
And my free Spirrit scornes to obey your power:
Goe seeke an orphan, I am yours noe more.
