A Woman's Honour

Lord John Wilmot 1647 (Ditchley, Oxfordshire) – 1680 (Woodstock, Oxfordshire)



Love bade me hope, and I obeyed;
Phyllis continued still unkind:
Then you may e'en despair, he said,
In vain I strive to change her mind.

Honour's got in, and keeps her heart,
Durst he but venture once abroad,
In my own right I'd take your part,
And show myself the mightier God.

This huffing Honour domineers
In breasts alone where he has place:
But if true generous Love apppears,
The hector dares not show his face.

Let me still languish and complain,
Be most unhumanly denied:
I have some pleasure in my pain,
She can have none with all her pride.

I fall a sacrifice to Love,
She lives a wretch for Honour's sake;
Whose tyrant does most cruel prove,
The difference is not hard to make.

Consider real Honour then,
You'll find hers cannot be the same;
'Tis noble confidence in men,
In women, mean, mistrustful shame.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

46 sec read
93

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA BXBX CCCC DEDE XFXF GHGH
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 803
Words 151
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Lord John Wilmot

John Wilmot was an English poet and courtier of King Charles II's Restoration court. more…

All Lord John Wilmot poems | Lord John Wilmot Books

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