Page:Poems - Lewis (1812).djvu/17

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POEMS.

LOVE AT SALE.

(The Idea is taken from a Greek Epigram.)

Come buy my ware! come buy! come buy!Fond youths and curious maids, draw nigh;I have this lovely wicked boy to sell.Go not, fair girls, his cage too near!Though mild his looks, his arrows fear;Be still, the urchin's faults and merits while I tell.
He in this little form unitesThe pangs of hell, and Heaven's delights;He reigns the lord of every mortal heart:He wounds the peasant, wounds the king,And is the fairest, falsest thing,That e'er excited joy, or bade a bosom smart.
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