Page:Trivia (John Gay) to which is added London (Samuel Johnson) (1809).djvu/23

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When blue-ey'd Patty near his window came,
His anvil rests, his forge forgets to flame:
To hear his soothing tales she feigns delays;—
What woman can resist the force of praise?260
At first she coily ev'ry kiss withstood,
And all her cheek was flush'd with modest blood:
With heedless nails he now surrounds her shoes,
To save her steps from rains and piercing dews.
She lik'd his soothing tales, his presents wore,265
And granted kisses—but would grant no more.
Yet winter chilled her feet, with cold she pines,
And on her cheek the fading rose declines;
No more her humid eyes their lustre boast,269
And in hoarse sounds her melting voice is lost.
This Vulcan saw, and in his heavenly thought
A new machine mechanic fancy wrought,
Above the mire her shelter'd steps to raise,
And bear her safely through the wint'ry ways.
Strait the new engine on his anvil glows,275
And the pale virgin on the patten rose.
No more her lungs are shook with dropping rheums,
And on her cheek reviving beauty blooms. . . .