Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham

To Flavia

1 ’Tis not your beauty can engage
    My wary heart;
  The sun, in all his pride and rage,
    Has not that art;
  And yet he shines as bright as you,
  If brightness could our souls subdue.

2 ’Tis not the pretty things you say,
    Nor those you write,
  Which can make Thyrsis’ heart your prey:
    For that delight,
  The graces of a well-taught mind,
  In some of our own sex we find.

3 No, Flavia! ’tis your love I fear;
    Love’s surest darts,
  Those which so seldom fail him, are
    Headed with hearts;
  Their very shadows make us yield;
  Dissemble well, and win the field.