Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE YOUNG LION AND THE APE, by EDWARD MOORE (1712-1757) Poet's Biography First Line: Tis true I blame your lover's choice Last Line: And pays with interest scorn for scorn.' Subject(s): Animals; Apes; Beauty; Charm; Fables; Lions; Women; Gorillas; Chimpanzees; Gibbons; Orangutans; Allegories | ||||||||
'TIS true I blame your lover's choice Though flatter'd by the public voice, And peevish grow and sick to hear His exclamations, 'O how fair!' I listen not to wild delights And transports of expected nights: What is to me your hoard of charms, The whiteness of your neck and arms? Needs there no acquisition more To keep contention from the door? Yes; pass a fortnight, and you'll find All beauty cloys but of the mind. Sense and good humour ever prove The surest cords to fasten love; Yet Phillis, simplest of your sex! You never think but to perplex; Coquetting it with every Ape That struts abroad in human shape; Not that the coxcomb is your taste, But that it stings your lover's breast; To-morrow you resign the sway, Prepar'd to honour and obey, The tyrant-mistress change for life To the submission of a wife. Your follies if you can suspend, And learn instruction from a friend, Reluctant hear the first address, Think often ere you answer Yes; But once resolv'd, throw off disguise, And wear your wishes in your eyes: With caution every look forbear That might create one jealous fear, A lover's ripening hopes confound, Or give the generous breast a wound; Contemn the girlish arts to tease, Nor use your pow'r unless to please; For fools alone with rigour sway, When soon or late they must obey. The King of brutes in life's decline Resolv'd dominion to resign; The beasts were summon'd to appear And bend before the royal heir: They came; a day was fix'd; the crowd Before their future monarch bow'd. A dapper Monkey, pert and vain, Stepp'd forth, and thus address'd the train: 'Why cringe, my friends! with slavish awe, Before this pageant king of straw? Shall we anticipate the hour, And ere we feel it, own his pow'r? The counsels of experience prize; I know the maxims of the wise: Subjection let us cast away, And live the monarchs of to-day; 'Tis ours the vacant hand to spurn, And play the tyrant each in turn: So shall he right from wrong discern, And mercy from oppression learn, At other's woes be taught to melt, And loath the ills himself has felt.' He spoke; his bosom swell'd with pride; The youthful Lion thus replied: 'What madness prompts thee to provoke My wrath, and dare the' impending stroke? Thou wretched fool! can wrongs impart Compassion to the feeling heart, Or teach the grateful breast to glow, The hand to give, or eye to flow? Learn'd in the practice of their schools, From women thou hast drawn thy rules; To them return; in such a cause From only such expect applause; The partial sex I not condemn For liking those who copy them. 'Would'st thou the generous Lion bind? By kindness bribe him to be kind: Good offices their likeness get, And payment lessens not the debt; With multiplying hand he gives The good, from others he receives; Or for the bad makes fair return, And pays with interest scorn for scorn.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CYMON AND IPHIGENIA by GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO SIGISMONDA AND GUISCARDO by GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO THE CHARACTER OF A GOOD PARSON by GEOFFREY CHAUCER THE COCK AND THE FOX, OR THE TALE OF THE NUN'S PRIEST by GEOFFREY CHAUCER TIME, REAL AND IMAGINARY; AN ALLEGORY by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE GLADYS AND HER ISLAND; AN IMPERFECT TALE WITH DOUBTFUL MORAL by JEAN INGELOW THE WOLF AND THE DOG by JEAN DE LA FONTAINE AS PHILLIS THE GAY by EDWARD MOORE (1712-1757) BE STILL, O YE WINDS! by EDWARD MOORE (1712-1757) ELEGY, WRITTEN AMONG THE RUINS OF A NOBLEMAN'S SEAT IN CORNWALL by EDWARD MOORE (1712-1757) |
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