Ode XIV. The Complaint by Mark Akenside

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 shewn,
Alas, to me?
How often, to myself unknown,
The graceful, gentle, virtuous maid
Have I admir’d!  How often said,
What joy to call a heart like her’s 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 plac’d thy friends above her stern decrees?

From: Akenside, Mark, The Poems of Mark Akenside, 1772, W Bowyer and J Nicholl: London, pp. 339-340.

(http://ia600404.us.archive.org/13/items/poemsofmarkakens00aken/poemsofmarkakens00aken.pdf)

Date: 1740

By: Mark Akenside (1721-1770)

Tags: 1740, away! away!, mark akenside, ode xiv the complaint, poetry