T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Fright
Anonymous(From Songs, Comic, and Satyrical, by George Alexander Stevens, 1782) |
ONE ev’ning alone in the grove, | |
| Miss sat on the side of the green, | |
| She wonder’d at what they call Love, | |
| And what it was marry’d folks mean. | |
| “All night how I tumble and toss, | 5 |
| Yet neither want manner nor means; | |
| Alas! must I live to my loss, | |
| And wither away in my teens?” | |
| Young Rhodophil ran up the slope, | |
| As if he some sport had in view; | 10 |
| She trembl’d, betwixt Fear and Hope, | |
| Irresolute what she should do: | |
| She saw him advance to her seat, | |
| She saw him, but could not away; | |
| Love fix’d a large weight to her feet, | 15 |
| Curiosity told her to stay. | |
| Desire gave grace to his tongue, | |
| As lovers to lovers will speak; | |
| Enamour’d, he over her hung, | |
| Then bow’d down his lips to her cheek: | 20 |
| He knelt, she attempted to rise, | |
| Tho’ ’twas but a feeble essay; | |
| The wildness he wore in his eyes, | |
| So scar’d her she fainted away. | |