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SONG, BY A PERSON OF QUALITY WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1733 - Alexander Pope, The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope [1903]

Edition used:

The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Cambridge Edition, ed. Henry W. Boynton (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1903).

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SONG, BY A PERSON OF QUALITY

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1733

The public astonished Pope by taking this burlesque seriously, and praising it as poetry.

    • I

    • Flutt’ring spread thy purple Pinions,
    • Gentle Cupid, o’er my Heart;
    • I a Slave in thy Dominions;
    • Nature must give Way to Art.
    • II

    • Mild Arcadians, ever blooming,
    • Nightly nodding o’er your Flocks,
    • See my weary Days consuming,
    • All beneath you flow’ry Rocks.
    • III

    • Thus the Cyprian Goddess weeping,
    • Mourn’d Adonis, darling Youth:
    • Him the Boar in Silence creeping,
    • Gored with unrelenting Tooth.
    • IV

    • Cynthia, tune harmonious Numbers;
    • Fair Discretion, string the Lyre;
    • Soothe my ever-waking Slumbers:
    • Bright Apollo, lend thy Choir.
    • V

    • Gloomy Pluto, King of Terrors,
    • Arm’d in adamantine Chains,
    • Lead me to the Crystal Mirrors,
    • Wat’ring soft Elysian Plains.
    • VI

    • Mournful Cypress, verdant Willow,
    • Gilding my Aurelia’s Brows,
    • Morpheus hov’ring o’er my Pillow,
    • Hear me pay my dying Vows.
    • VII

    • Melancholy smooth Mœander,
    • Swiftly purling in a Round,
    • On thy Margin Lovers wander,
    • With thy flow’ry Chaplets crown’d.
    • VIII

    • Thus when Philomela drooping,
    • Softly seeks her silent Mate,
    • See the Bird of Juno stooping;
    • Melody resigns to Fate.