Poem by Mark Akenside

The Complaint

AWAY! away!
Tempt me no more, insidious Love:
Thy soothing sway
Long did my youthful bosom prove:
At length thy treason is discern'd,
At length some dear-bought caution earn'd:
Away! nor hope my riper age to move.

I know, I see
Her merit. Needs it now be shown,
Alas! to me?
How often, to myself unknown,
The graceful, gentle, virtuous maid
Have I admired! How often said--
What joy to call a heart like hers one's own!

But, flattering god,
O squanderer of content and ease
In thy abode
Will care's rude lesson learn to please?
O say, deceiver, hast thou won
Proud Fortune to attend thy throne,
Or placed thy friends above her stern decrees?

1. Hymn to the Naiads
2. Ode 7. On the Use of Poetry
3. Ode 12. On Recovering from a Fit of Sickness, In the Country
4. Ambition and Content
5. Ode 8. On Leaving Holland

Caroline Fry (Wilson) The Complaint ("O YOU who at lighter afflictions repine")

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