Did first his beauty wake her sighs?
That’s Lais! Thus Lucretia’s known:
The beauty in her Lover’s eyes
Was admiration of her own.
THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE.
1
Oh, beating heart of sweet alarm,
Which stays the lover’s step, when near
His mistress and her awful charm
Of grace and innocence sincere!
I held the half-shut door, and heard
The voice of my betrothed wife,
Who sang my verses, every word
By music taught its latent life;
With interludes of well-touch’d notes,
That flash’d, surprising and serene,
As meteor after meteor floats
The soft, autumnal stars between.
There was a passion in her tone,
A tremor when she touch’d the keys,
Which told me she was there alone,
And uttering all her soul at ease.
I enter’d; for I did not choose
To learn how in her heart I throve,
By chance or stealth; beyond her use,
Her greeting flatter’d me with love.
2
With true love’s treacherous confidence,
And ire, at last to laughter won,
She spoke this speech, and mark’d its sense,
By action, as her Aunt had done.
3
‘“You, with your looks and catching air,
To think of Vaughan! You fool! You know,
You might, with ordinary care,
Ev’n yet be Lady Clitheroe.
You’re sure he’ll do great things some day!
Nonsense, he won’t; he’s dress’d too well.
Dines with the Sterling Club, they say;
Not commonly respectable!
Half Puritan, half Cavalier!
His curly hair I think’s a wig;
And, for his fortune, why my Dear,
’Tis not enough to keep a gig.
Rich Aunts and Uncles never die;
And what you bring won’t do for dress:
And so you’ll live on By-and-by,
Within oaten-cake and water-cress!”
4
‘I cried, but did not let her see.
At last she soften’d her dispraise,
On learning you had bought for me
A carriage and a pair of bays.
But here she comes! You take her in
To dinner. I impose this task
Make her approve my love; and win
What thanks from me you choose to ask!’