Poem by Aphra Behn

Song (Cease, cease, Aminta, to complain)

Cease, cease, Aminta, to complain,
        Thy Languishments give o’re,
Why shoud’st thou sigh because the Swain
        Another does Adore?
Those Charms, fond Maid, that vanquish’d thee,
        Have many a Conquest won,
And sure he could not cruel be
        And leave ’em all undon.

The Youth a Noble temper bears,
        Soft and compassionate,        
And thou canst only blame thy Stars,
        That made thee love too late;
Yet had their Influence all been kind
        They had not cross’d my Fate,
The tend'rest hours must have an end, 
        And Passion has its date.

The softest love grows cold and shy,
        The face so late ador’d,
Now unregarded passes by,
        Or grows at last abhor’d;
All things in Nature fickle prove,
        See how they glide away;
Think so in time thy hopeless love
        Will die, as Flowers decay.

1. The Permission
2. The Willing Mistriss
3. On the Death of E. Waller, Esq.
4. The First Cypher
5. Amintas That True-Hearted Swain

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