Page:The Works of Abraham Cowley - volume 2 (ed. Aikin) (1806).djvu/99

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[ 83 ]

MAIDENHEAD.

Thou worst estate ev'n of the sex that's worst;
Therefore by Nature made at first
T' attend the weakness of our birth!
Slight outward curtain to the nuptial bed!
Thou case to buildings not yet finished!
Who, like the centre of the earth,
Dost heaviest things attract to thee,
Though thou a point imaginary be!

A thing God thought for mankind so unfit,
That his first blessing ruin'd it.
Cold, frozen nurse of fiercest fires!
Who, like the parched plains of Africk's sand
(A sterile, and a wild unlovely land!)
Art always scorch'd with hot desires,
Yet barren quite, didst thou not bring
Monsters and serpents forth thyself to sting!

Thou that bewitchest men whilst thou dost dwell
Like a close conjurer in his cell,
And fear'st the day's discovering eye!
No wonder ’tis at all that thou shouldst be
Such tedious and unpleasant company,
Who liv'st so melancholily!
Thou thing of subtile, slippery kind,
Which women lose, and yet no man can find!