AMYNTAS.
45
On the soft bank, or through the shady grove,
The simple pair would open all their love;
Perhaps a thought, more ardent than the rest,
Would in a breathing whisper be expressed;
At length the burning kiss, the amorous toy,
Love's playful preludes, brought completer joy.
The virgin’s growing breast was then unveiled;
For no false fear that artless breast assailed:
And, bold through innocence, the naked maid
Oft in the river with her shepherd played:
'Tis Honour, which in these flagitious times
Blasphemes the deeds of nature into crimes.
Thou, Honour, first, stern foe to human kind,
Didst check the generous current of the mind;
Didst bid the maid consume with hidden fire,
And tremble to indulge innate desire;
To formal deadness didst the eye controul,
And kill the beam by which we see the soul.
No more the graceful negligence is seen;
The feeling being is a flat machine.
The simple pair would open all their love;
Perhaps a thought, more ardent than the rest,
Would in a breathing whisper be expressed;
At length the burning kiss, the amorous toy,
Love's playful preludes, brought completer joy.
The virgin’s growing breast was then unveiled;
For no false fear that artless breast assailed:
And, bold through innocence, the naked maid
Oft in the river with her shepherd played:
'Tis Honour, which in these flagitious times
Blasphemes the deeds of nature into crimes.
Thou, Honour, first, stern foe to human kind,
Didst check the generous current of the mind;
Didst bid the maid consume with hidden fire,
And tremble to indulge innate desire;
To formal deadness didst the eye controul,
And kill the beam by which we see the soul.
No more the graceful negligence is seen;
The feeling being is a flat machine.
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