Page:National Ballad and Song (1897), vol. 5.djvu/122

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96
THE DISAPPOINTMENT
Not all her Naked Charms cou’d move
Or calm that Rage that had debauch’d his Love.

Cloris returning from the Trance
Which Love and soft Desire had bred,
Her timerous Hand she gently laid
(Or guided by Design or Chance)
Upon that Famous Prapas,
That Potent God, as Poets feign;
But never did young Shepherdess,
Gath’ring of Fern upon the Plain,
More nimbly draw her Fingers back,
Finding beneath the verdant Leaves a Snake.

Than Cloris her fair Hand withdrew,
Finding that God of her Desires
Disarm’d of all his Awful Fires,
And Cold as Flow’rs bath’d in the Morning Dew.
Who can the Nymph’s Confusion guess?
The Blood forsook the hinder Place,
And strew’d with Blushes all her Face,
Which both Disdain and Shame exprest:
And from Lysander’s Arms she fled,
Leaving him fainting on the Gloomy Bed.

Like Lightning through the Grove she hies,
Or Daphne from the Delphick God,
No Print upon the grassey Road
She leaves, t’instruct Pursuing Eyes.