[Page 278]

A LETTER to the same Person
[ed.] Heneage Finch (1657-1726), Anne's husband, who was arrested in 1690, but later released. (AH)
.

1 SUre of Success, to You I boldly write,
2 Whilst Love do's ev'ry tender Line endite;
3 Love, who is justly President of Verse,
4 Which all his Servants write, or else rehearse.
5 Phoebus (howe'er mistaken Poets dream)
6 Ne'er us'd a Verse, till Love became his Theme.
7 To his stray'd Son, still as his Passion rose,
8 He rais'd his hasty Voice in clam'rous Prose:
9 But when in Daphne he wou'd Love inspire,
10 He woo'd in Verse, set to his silver Lyre.
11 The Trojan Prince did pow'rful Numbers join
12 To sing of War; but Love was the Design:
13 And sleeping Troy again in Flames was drest,
14 To light the Fires in pitying Dido's Breast.
15 Love without Poetry's refining Aid
16 Is a dull Bargain, and but coarsely made;
[Page 279]
17 Nor e'er cou'd Poetry successful prove,
18 Or touch the Soul, but when the Sense was Love.
19 Oh! cou'd they both in Absence now impart
20 Skill to my Hand, but to describe my Heart;
21 Then shou'd you see impatient of your Stay
22 Soft Hopes contend with Fears of sad Delay;
23 Love in a thousand fond Endearments there,
24 And lively Images of You appear.
25 But since the Thoughts of a Poetick Mind
26 Will never be to Syllables confin'd;
27 And whilst to fix what is conceiv'd, we try,
28 The purer Parts evaporate and dye:
29 You must perform what they want force to do,
30 And think what your ARDELIA thinks of you.

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Title (in Source Edition): A LETTER to the same Person.
Themes:
Genres: heroic couplet; epistle

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Source edition

Winchilsea, Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of, 1661-1720. Miscellany poems, on several occasions: Written by the Right Honble Anne, Countess of Winchilsea. London: printed for J. B. and sold by Benj. Tooke, William Taylor, and James Round, 1713, pp. 278-279. [8],390p. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T94539; Foxon pp. 274-5; OTA K076314.000) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Buxton 100].)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

Other works by Anne Finch (née Kingsmill), countess of Winchilsea