Poems by Aphra Behn

All Poems Original Poems Translations

1 2 › »

Song from ‘Lycidus’

A CONSTANCY in love I’ll prize,

And be to beauty true:

And doat on all the lovely eyes,

That are but fair and new.

On Cloris’ charms to day I’ll feed,

To-morrow Daphne move;

For bright Lucinda next I’ll bleed,

And still be true to love.

Aphra Behn

Song: “Cease, cease, Aminta, to complain”

CEASE, cease, Aminta, to complain,

Thy languishments give o’er,

Why should’st thou sigh because the swain

Another does adore?

Those charms, fond maid, that vanquish’d thee,

Have many a conquest won,

And sure he could not cruel be

And leave ’em all undone.

Aphra Behn

Song: “How strongly does my passion flow”

HOW strongly does my passion flow,

Divided equally ’twixt two?

Damon had ne’er subdued my heart,

Had not Alexis took his part;

Nor could Alexis powerful prove,

Without my Damon’s aid, to gain my love.

When my Alexis present is,

Aphra Behn

The Willing Mistriss

Amyntas led me to a Grove,

Where all the Trees did shade us;

The Sun it self, though it had Strove,

It could not have betray'd us:

The place secur'd from humane Eyes,

No other fear allows,

But when the Winds that gently rise,

Doe Kiss the yielding Boughs.

Aphra Behn

The Dream

All trembling in my arms Aminta lay,

Defending of the bliss I strove to take;

Raising my rapture by her kind delay,

Her force so charming was and weak.

The soft resistance did betray the grant,

While I pressed on the heaven of my desires;

Her rising breasts with nimbler motions pant;

Her dying eyes assume new fires.

Aphra Behn

Song

Oh love! that stronger art than Wine,

Pleasing Delusion, Witchery divine,

Wont to be priz'd above all Wealth,

Disease that has more Joys than Health;

Though we blaspheme thee in our Pain,

And of Tyranny complain,

We are all better'd by thy Reign.

What Reason never can bestow,

Aphra Behn

On the Death of E Waller, Esq

How, to thy Sacred Memory, shall I bring

(Worthy thy Fame) a grateful Offering?

I, who by Toils of Sickness, am become

Almost as near as thou art to a Tomb?

While every soft, and every tender Strain

Is ruffl'd, and ill-natur'd grown with Pain.

But, at thy Name, my languisht Muse revives,

And a new Spark in the dull Ashes strives.

Aphra Behn

The Libertine

A THOUSAND martyrs I have made,

All sacrificed to my desire,

A thousand beauties have betray'd

That languish in resistless fire:

The untamed heart to hand I brought,

And fix'd the wild and wand'ring thought.

I never vow'd nor sigh'd in vain,

But both, tho' false, were well received;

Aphra Behn

A Congratulatory Poem

While my sad Muse the darkest Covert Sought,

To give a loose to Melancholy Thought;

Opprest, and sighing with the Heavy Weight

Of an Unhappy dear Lov'd Monarch's Fate;

A lone retreat, on Thames's Brink she found,

With Murmering Osiers fring'd, and bending Willows Crown'd,

Thro' the thick Shade cou'd dart no Chearful Ray,

Nature dwelt here as in disdain of Day:

Aphra Behn

Love Arm'd

Love in Fantastique Triumph satt,

Whilst bleeding Hearts around him flow'd,

For whom Fresh pains he did create,

And strange Tryanic power he show'd;

From thy Bright Eyes he took his fire,

Which round about, in sport he hurl'd;

But 'twas from mine he took desire,

Enough to undo the Amorous World.

Aphra Behn

To the Fair Clarinda

Who made love to me,

Imagin'd more than woman.

Fair lovely Maid, or if that Title be

Too weak, too Feminine for Nobler thee,

Permit a Name that more Approaches Truth:

And let me call thee, Lovely Charming Youth.

This last will justify my soft complaint,

While that may serve to lessen my constraint;

Aphra Behn

On the Death of the late Earl of Rochester

Mourn, Mourn, ye Muses, all your loss deplore,

The Young, the Noble Strephon is no more.

Yes, yes, he fled quick as departing Light,

And ne're shall rise from Deaths eternal Night,

So rich a Prize the Stygian Gods ne're bore,

Such Wit, such Beauty, never grac'd their Shore.

He was but lent this duller World t'irnprove

In all the charms of Poetry, and Love;

Aphra Behn