Page:Odes on several subjects - Akenside (1745).djvu/23

ODE IV.

TO

A Gentleman whose Mistress
had married an Old Man.

 

Indeed, my Phædria, if to find
That gold a female's vow can gain,
If this had e'er disturb'd your mind,
Or cost one serious moment's pain,
I should have said that all the rules
You learnt of moralists and schools,
Were very useless, very vain.

Yet I perhaps mistake the case;
And tho' with this heroic air,
Like one that holds a nobler chace,
You seem the lady's loss to bear,
Perhaps your heart bely'd your tongue,
And thinks my censure mighty wrong
To count it such a slight affair.