Three Songs



LOVE, thou art best of Human Joys,
 Our chiefest Happiness below;
All other Pleasures are but Toys,
Musick without Thee is but Noise,
 And Beauty but an empty Show.
Heav'n, who knew best what Man wou'd move,
 And raise his Thoughts above the Brute;
Said, Let him Be, and let him Love;
That must alone his Soul improve,
 Howe'er Philosophers dispute.

II

Quickly, Delia, Learn my Passion,
 Lose not Pleasure, to be Proud;
Courtship draws on Observation,
 And the Whispers of the Croud.

Soon or late you'll hear a Lover,
 Nor by Time his Truth can prove;
Ages won't a Heart discover,
 Trust, and so secure my Love

III

'TIS strange, this Heart within my breast,
 Reason opposing, and her Pow'rs,
Cannot one gentle Moment rest,
 Unless it knows what's done in Yours.
In vain I ask it of your Eyes,
 Which subt'ly would my Fears controul;
For Art has taught them to disguise,
 Which Nature made t' explain the Soul.

In vain that Sound, your Voice affords,
 Flatters sometimes my easy Mind;
But of too vast Extent are Words
 In them the Jewel Truth to find.

Then let my fond Enquiries cease,
 And so let all my Troubles end:
For, sure, that Heart shall ne'er know Peace,
 Which on Anothers do's depend.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:07 min read
37

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAABCDECD FXFD GCGE HAHXIBIX XJXJ KLKL
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,185
Words 215
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 10, 4, 4, 8, 4, 4

Anne Kingsmill Finch

Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (née Kingsmill), was an English poet and courtier. Finch's works often express a desire for respect as a female poet, lamenting her difficult position as a woman in the literary establishment and the court, while writing of "political ideology, religious orientation, and aesthetic sensibility". Her works also allude to other female authors of the time, such as Aphra Behn and Katherine Phillips. Through her commentary on the mental and spiritual equality of the genders and the importance of women fulfilling their potential as a moral duty to themselves and to society, she is regarded as one of the integral female poets of the Restoration Era. Finch died in Westminster in 1720 and was buried at her home at Eastwell, Kent.  more…

All Anne Kingsmill Finch poems | Anne Kingsmill Finch Books

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