Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A YOUNG LADY, PURPOSING TO MARRY A MAN OF IMMORAL CHARACTER, by ANNA SEWARD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A YOUNG LADY, PURPOSING TO MARRY A MAN OF IMMORAL CHARACTER, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Time, and thy charms, thou fanciest will redeem
Last Line: Volume decreaseless, to the final hour.
Alternate Author Name(s): Seward, Nancy
Subject(s): Love - Cultural Differences


Time, and thy charms, thou fanciest will redeem
Yon aweless libertine from rooted vice.
Misleading thought! has he not paid the price,
His taste for virtue? -- Ah, the sensual stream
Has flowed too long. -- What charms can so entice,
What frequent guilt so pall, as not to shame
The rash belief, presumptuous and unwise,
That crimes habitual will forsake the frame? --
Thus, on the river's bank, in fabled lore,
The rustic stands; sees the stream swiftly go,
And thinks he soon shall find the gulf below
A channel dry, which he may safe pass o'er. --
Vain hope! -- it flows -- and flows -- and yet will flow,
Volume decreaseless, to the final hour.





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