Poem by Anna Laetitia Barbauld

Song 3 (LEAVE me, simple shepherd, leave me)

Sylvia.⁠ LEAVE me, simple shepherd, leave me;
 Drag no more a hopeless chain:
I cannot like, nor would deceive thee;
 Love the maid that loves again.

Corin.⁠ Tho' more gentle nymphs surround me,
 Kindly pitying what I feel,
Only you have power to wound me;
 Sylvia, only you can heal.

Sylvia.⁠ Corin, cease this idle teazing;
 Love that's forc'd is harsh and sour:
If the lover be displeasing,
 To persist disgusts the more.

Corin.⁠ 'Tis in vain, in vain to fly me,
 Sylvia, I will still pursue;
Twenty thousand times deny me,
 I will kneel and weep anew.

Sylvia.⁠ Cupid ne'er shall make me languish,
 I was born averse to love;
Lovers' sighs, and tears, and anguish,
 Mirth and pastime to me prove.

Corin.⁠ Still I vow with patient duty
 Thus to meet your proudest scorn;
You for unrelenting beauty,
 I for constant love was born.

But the fates had not consented,
 Since they both did fickle prove;
Of her scorn the maid repented,
 And the shepherd—of his love. 

1. To the Baron De Stonne
2. Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq.
3. A Summer Evening's Meditation
4. On the Death of Mrs. Jennings
5. Hymn 5 (AWAKE, my soul! lift up thine eyes)

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