"Change did I say, that word I must forbear, / No, she bright Star wont wander from her sphere / Of Virtue (in which Female Souls do move) / Nor will she joyn with an insatiate love."
— Egerton [née Fyge; other married name Field], Sarah (1670-1723)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by H. C. for John Taylor
Date
1686
Metaphor
"Change did I say, that word I must forbear, / No, she bright Star wont wander from her sphere / Of Virtue (in which Female Souls do move) / Nor will she joyn with an insatiate love."
Metaphor in Context
[...] If this isn't Constancy, why then the Sun
With Constant Motion don't his progress run.
There's thousands of examples that will prove,
Woman is alwayes Constant in chast Love.
But when she's courted only to some Lust,
She well may change, I think the reason's just.
Change did I say, that word I must forbear,
No, she bright Star wont wander from her sphere
Of Virtue (in which Female Souls do move)
Nor will she joyn with an insatiate love.
For she whose first espoused to vertue must
Be most inconstant, when she yields to lust.
But now the scene is alter'd, and those who
were esteemed modest by a blush or two,
Are represented quite another way,
Worse than mock-verse doth the most solid Play.
She that takes pious Precepts for her Rule,
Is thought by some a kind of ill-bred fool;
They would have all bred up in Venus School.
And when that by her speech or carriage, she
Doth seem to have sence of a Deity,
She straight is taxt with ungentility.
Unless it be the little blinded Boy,
That Childish god, Cupid, that trifling toy,
That certain nothing, whom they feign to be
The Son of Venus daughter to the Sea.
But were he true, none serve him as they shoud,
For commonly those who adore this god,
Do't only in a melancholy mood;
Or else a sort of hypocrites they are,
Who do invocate him only as a snare.
And by him they do sacred love pretend,
When as heaven knows, they have a baser end.
Nor is he god of love; but if I must
Give him a title, then he is god of lust.
And surely Woman impious must be
When e're she doth become his votary,
Unless she will believe without controul,
Those that did hold a Woman had no Soul:
And then doth think no obligation lyes
On her to act what may be just or wise.
And only strive to please her Appetite,
And to embrace that which doth most delight.
And when she doth this paradox believe,
Whatever faith doth please she may receive.
She may be Turk, Jew, Atheist, Infidel,
Or any thing, cause she need ne'er fear Hell,
For if she hath no Soul what need she fear
Something she knows not what or vvhen or vvhere.
With Constant Motion don't his progress run.
There's thousands of examples that will prove,
Woman is alwayes Constant in chast Love.
But when she's courted only to some Lust,
She well may change, I think the reason's just.
Change did I say, that word I must forbear,
No, she bright Star wont wander from her sphere
Of Virtue (in which Female Souls do move)
Nor will she joyn with an insatiate love.
For she whose first espoused to vertue must
Be most inconstant, when she yields to lust.
But now the scene is alter'd, and those who
were esteemed modest by a blush or two,
Are represented quite another way,
Worse than mock-verse doth the most solid Play.
She that takes pious Precepts for her Rule,
Is thought by some a kind of ill-bred fool;
They would have all bred up in Venus School.
And when that by her speech or carriage, she
Doth seem to have sence of a Deity,
She straight is taxt with ungentility.
Unless it be the little blinded Boy,
That Childish god, Cupid, that trifling toy,
That certain nothing, whom they feign to be
The Son of Venus daughter to the Sea.
But were he true, none serve him as they shoud,
For commonly those who adore this god,
Do't only in a melancholy mood;
Or else a sort of hypocrites they are,
Who do invocate him only as a snare.
And by him they do sacred love pretend,
When as heaven knows, they have a baser end.
Nor is he god of love; but if I must
Give him a title, then he is god of lust.
And surely Woman impious must be
When e're she doth become his votary,
Unless she will believe without controul,
Those that did hold a Woman had no Soul:
And then doth think no obligation lyes
On her to act what may be just or wise.
And only strive to please her Appetite,
And to embrace that which doth most delight.
And when she doth this paradox believe,
Whatever faith doth please she may receive.
She may be Turk, Jew, Atheist, Infidel,
Or any thing, cause she need ne'er fear Hell,
For if she hath no Soul what need she fear
Something she knows not what or vvhen or vvhere.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "soul" in HDIS (Poetry)
Date of Entry
10/18/2010
