Classic Poem

Who can describe, in Numbers fit,
All the new Pangs by Lovers found;
When, undesigning, first they meet;
Give and receive the destin'd Wound?

Who can? Yet since this friendly Lay
Damon demands, O Muse rehearse
What govern'd Fancy bids thee say —
May Phaebus aid the flowing Verse!

Love wears a Thousand diff'rent Forms;
He wins the Heart a Thousand Ways:
Now like a Deity he storms;
Now in Disguise the Soul betrays.

As varied is the Anguish felt,
When two begin to grow the same :
With stifled Heat some inly melt;
While some confess, and urge their Flame.

Yet would the God to Nature bend;
His boundless Sway could Law restrain;
Thus might I paint him to my Friend:
Thus state the Measures of his Reign.

Two chosen Names, on Fate's long Roll,
In the same Character he reads:
Remarks the Frame of either Soul;
And, unobserv'd, in both proceeds.

Occasion, bound by firm Compact,
The Place, the Time, the Cause contrives:
Brings them together, to transact
Some common Business of their Lives.

Expects my Damon I should tell
Of Love's Activity, and Force?
The Light'ning I could paint as well,
That pierces all Things in it's Course!

It enters — — in the Breast it stays — —
(Believe it done as soon as thought!)
About the Heart it kindling plays — —
It takes — — By all the Soul 'tis caught.

The generous Youth, the first on Fire,
Looks kinder Things than others speak;
And Sighs, and broken Words conspire,
In vain, his mighty Thoughts to break.

He views the Nymph, while o'er her Cheeks
The Red and White alternate flow;
'Till, Sympathetic (what he seeks)
Her Soul like his begins to glow.

Disorder'd now, the Boy perceives,
And, eager, fans the kindled Fire:
'Till her Heart pants, her Bosom heaves;
And the whole Maid is one Desire!

Now both submit, Love only sways — —
They talk, they toy, they burn, they gaze,
Send forth, and mix incessant Rays;
'Till all their Souls unite, and blaze.

But O the Raptures that succeed;
And bless the Flame divinely pure!
Strong as the Sun, themselves they feed,
And, like his Beams, they still endure!