The Works of The Ettrick Shepherd Centenary Edition. With a Memoir of the Author, by the Rev. Thomas Thomson ... Poems and Life. With Many Illustrative Engravings [by James Hogg] |
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Moralitas.
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 | The Works of The Ettrick Shepherd |  |
Moralitas.
She that giveth heart away
For the homage of a day,
To a downy dimpling chin,
Smile that tells the void within—
Swaggering gait, and stays of steel—
Saucy head and sounding heel—
Gives the gift of woe and weeping;
Gives a thing not worth the keeping;
Gives a trifle—gives a toy:
Sweetest viands soonest cloy.
For the homage of a day,
To a downy dimpling chin,
Smile that tells the void within—
Swaggering gait, and stays of steel—
Saucy head and sounding heel—
Gives the gift of woe and weeping;
Gives a thing not worth the keeping;
Gives a trifle—gives a toy:
Sweetest viands soonest cloy.
Gains—Good Lord! what doth she gain?—
Years of sorrow and of pain;
Gains the curse that leaves her never;
Gains the pang that lasts for ever.
Years of sorrow and of pain;
Gains the curse that leaves her never;
Gains the pang that lasts for ever.
And why? Ah, hath not reason shown it,
Though the heart dares hardly own it?
Well it traces love to be
The fruit of the forbidden tree;
The test of that angelic creature;
The touchstone of her human nature,
Which proved her, though of heavenly birth,
An erring meteor of the earth.
Though the heart dares hardly own it?
Well it traces love to be
The fruit of the forbidden tree;
The test of that angelic creature;
The touchstone of her human nature,
Which proved her, though of heavenly birth,
An erring meteor of the earth.
And what, by Heaven's sovereign will,
Was trial once is trial still;
It is the fruit that virgin's eye
Can ne'er approach too cautiously;
It is the fruit that virgin's hand
Must never touch but on command
Of parent, guardian, friends in common—
Approved both by man and woman;
Else woe to her as maid or wife!
For all her days of mortal life,
The curse falls heavy on her crime,
And heavier wears by length of time;
And, as of future joys to reft her,
Upon her race that follows after.
Was trial once is trial still;
It is the fruit that virgin's eye
Can ne'er approach too cautiously;
It is the fruit that virgin's hand
Must never touch but on command
Of parent, guardian, friends in common—
Approved both by man and woman;
Else woe to her as maid or wife!
For all her days of mortal life,
The curse falls heavy on her crime,
And heavier wears by length of time;
And, as of future joys to reft her,
Upon her race that follows after.
But oh, if prudence and discretion
Baulk the forward inclination—
Cool the bosom, check the eye,
And guide the hand that binds the tie—
Then, then alone is love a treasure,
A blessing of unbounded measure,
Which every pledge of love endears;
It buds with age, and grows with years—
As from the earth it points on high,
Till its fair tendrils in the sky
Blossom in joy, and ever will,
And woman is an angel still.
Baulk the forward inclination—
Cool the bosom, check the eye,
And guide the hand that binds the tie—
Then, then alone is love a treasure,
A blessing of unbounded measure,
Which every pledge of love endears;
It buds with age, and grows with years—
As from the earth it points on high,
Till its fair tendrils in the sky
Blossom in joy, and ever will,
And woman is an angel still.
| The Works of The Ettrick Shepherd | |