To Alexis in Answer to his Poem against Fruition

To Alexis in Answer to his Poem against Fruition*

Ah hapless sex! who bear no charms,

But what like lightning flash and are no more,

    False fires sent down for baneful harms,

Fires which the fleeting lover feebly warms

    And given like past beboches o’er,

    Like songs that please, (though bad,) when new,

    But learned by heart neglected grew.

In vain did Heav’n adorn the shape and face

With beauties which by angels’ forms it drew:

In vain the mind with brighter glories grace, [10]

While all our joys are stinted to the space

    Of one betraying interview,

With one surrender to the eager will

We’re short-lived nothing, or a real ill.

Since Man with that inconstancy was born,

To love the absent, and the present scorn,

    Why do we deck, why do we dress

    For such a short-lived happiness?

    Why do we put attraction on,

Since either way ’tis we must be undone? [20]

    They fly if Honour take our part,

    Our virtue drives them o’er the field.

    We lose ’em by too much desert,

    And Oh! they fly us if we yield.

Ye Gods! is there no charm in all the fair

To fix this wild, this faithless wanderer.

    Man! our great business and our aim.

    For whom we spread our fruitless snares,

No sooner kindles the designing flame,

    But to the next bright object bears [30]

The trophies of his conquest and our shame:

    Inconstancy’s the god supreme

The rest is airy notion, empty dream!