@3C.@1 WHY dost thou all address deny? Hard-hearted Parthenissa, why? See how the trembling lovers come, That from thy lips expect their doom. @3P.@1 Cloris! I hate them all, they know, Nay I have often told them so; Their silly politics abhorr'd: I scorn to make my slave my lord. @3C.@1 But Strephon's eyes proclaim his love Too brave, tyrannical to prove. @3P.@1 Ah, Cloris! when we lose our pow'r We must obey the conqueror. @3C.@1 Yet where a gentle Prince bears sway, It is no bondage to obey. @3P.@1 But if like Nero, for awhile, With arts of kindness he beguile; How shall the tyrant be withstood When he has writ his laws in blood! @3C.@1 Love, Parthenissa, all commands: It fetters Kings in charming bands; Mars yields his arms to Cupid's darts, And Beauty softens savage hearts. Chorus. @3If nothing else can pull the Tyrant down, Kill him with kindness, and the day's your own.@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET; OXFORD, 1916 by GEORGE SANTAYANA TO A CAPTIOUS CRITIC by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE OUTGOING OF SABBATH by ALTER ABELSON THE UNKNOWN DEAD by LEVI BISHOP RED COTTON NIGHT-CAP COUNTRY; OR, TURF AND TOWERS: PART 4 by ROBERT BROWNING |