The Minor Poems of Joseph Beaumont ... Edited from the autograph manuscript with introduction and notes by Eloise Robinson |
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The World
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 | The Minor Poems of Joseph Beaumont |  |
411
The World
May 24.
1
Nay now I'm sure my judgment's sound,Since ripe experience is its ground.
Why, I my self have felt & seen
Thy tedious Vanity;
Fond shameless World, & canst thou ween
I will for thee ev'n common sense deny?
2
Thou wear'st a beauteous skin, I grant;And do the deadly Serpents want
Those dangerous hypocrisies?
Or is the Poisons soule
Less its curs'd self, bycause it lies
In the brave ambush of a golden boule?
3
When Israels, & Wisdomes, KingDid stoutly to the touchstone bring
Thy fairest Peeces, did not they
Prove base-bred counterfets;
Whose stamp though neat, & colour gay,
Their purest ore was but refined Cheats.
412
4
And oh that I had been contentTo rest on his Experiment!
But since I at the cost have been
By thee deceivd to be,
'Tis not another World could win
My heart to dote: or trust on empty thee.
5
Go fawn on those whose frothy mindeCan solace in a bubble finde,
And Juno in a Clowd imbrace;
Who by the lying Paint
Which smiles upon their Idols face
Doubt not to count the beauties of their Saint.
6
And yet thy Paint's so silly too,It can no warey Lover woo.
Indeed good Shaddows sprucely show;
But where the Picture is
Nothing besides, (and such art thou)
It proves but artificial Ouglines.
| The Minor Poems of Joseph Beaumont | |