"To the fair Clarinda, who made Love to me, imagin'd more than Woman"
author: Aphra Behn
source date: 1688
language: en
availability: Published by Literature in Context under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

LYCIDUS: OR THE Lover in Fashion.
Being an Account from LYCIDUS to LYSANDER, Of his Voyage from the ISLAND of LOVE.
From the French.
By the same AUTHOR Of the Voyage to the Isle of LOVE.
Together with a MISCELLANY OF New Poems.
By Several HANDS.

LONDON: Printed for Joseph Knight, and Francis Saunders, at the Blew Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New-Exchange, 1688.

To the fair Clarinda, who made Love to me, imagin'd more than Woman. By. Mrs. B.

Fair lovely Maid, or if that Title be
Too weak, too Feminine for Nobler thee,
Permit a Name that more Approaches Truth:
And let me call thee, Lovely Charming Youth.
This last will justifie my soft complaint,
While that may serve to lessen my constraint;
And without Blushes I the Youth persue,
When so much beauteous Woman is in view.
Against thy Charms we struggle but in vain
With thy deluding Form thou giv'st us pain,
While the bright Nymph betrays us to the Swain.
In pity to our Sex sure thou wer't sent,
That we might Love, and yet be Innocent:
For sure no Crime with thee we can commit;
Or if we shou'd—thy Form excuses it.
For who, that gathers fairest Flowers believes
A Snake lies hid beneath the Fragrant Leaves.

Thou beauteous Wonder of a different kind,
Soft Cloris with the dear Alexis join'd;
When e'r the Manly part of thee, wou'd plead
Thou tempts us with the Image of the Maid,
While we the noblest Passions do extend
The Love to Hermes, Aphrodite the Friend.

FINIS.