To This Moment a Rebel

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



To this moment a rebel I throw down my arms,
Great Love, at first sight of Olinda's bright charms.
Make proud and secure by such forces as these,
You may now play the tyrant as soon as you please.

When Innocence, Beauty, and Wit do conspire
To betray, and engage, and inflame my Desire,
Why should I decline what I cannot avoid?
And let pleasing Hope by base Fear be destroyed?

Her innocence cannot contrive to undo me,
Her beauty's inclined, or why should it pursue me?
And Wit has to Pleasure been ever a friend,
Then what room for Despair, since Delight is Love's end?

There can be no danger in sweetness and youth,
Where Love is secured by good nature and truth;
On her beauty I'll gaze and of pleasure complain
While every kind look adds a link to my chain.

'Tis more to maintain than it was to surprise,
But her Wit leads in triumpth the slave of her eyes;
I beheld, with the loss of my freedom before,
But hearing, forever must serve and adore.

Too bright is my Goddess, her temple too weak:
Retire, divine image! I feel my heart break.
Help, Love! I dissolve in a rapture of charms
At the thought of those joys I should meet in her arms.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:06 min read
57

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ XXAA
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,130
Words 219
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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