Poetry  |  Collections  |  Collected English Verse  |  Thomas Parnell. b. 1679, d. 1718

Collected English Verse — Thomas Parnell. b. 1679, d. 1718

1679-1718

447   Song

     WHEN thy beauty appears
     In its graces and airs
All bright as an angel new dropp’d from the sky,
At distance I gaze and am awed by my fears:
     So strangely you dazzle my eye!
     But when without art
     Your kind thoughts you impart,
When your love runs in blushes through every vein;
When it darts from your eyes, when it pants in your heart,
     Then I know you’re a woman again.
     There’s a passion and pride
     In our sex (she replied),
And thus, might I gratify both, I would do:
Still an angel appear to each lover beside,
     But still be a woman to you.