Not Fair

‘T IS very true, I thought you once as fair

As women in th’ idea are;*

Whatever here seems beauteous, seem’d to be

But a faint metaphor of thee:

But then, methoughts, there something shin’d within,

Which casts this lustre o’er thy skin;

Nor could I choose but count it the sun’s light,

Which made this cloud appear so bright.

But, since I knew thy falsehood and thy pride,

And all thy thousand faults beside,

A very Moor, methinks, plac’d near to thee,

White as his teeth would seem to be.

So men (they say) by hell’s delusions led,

Have ta’en a succubus to their bed;

Believe it fair, and themselves happy call,

Till the cleft foot discovers all:

Then they start from ‘t, half ghosts themselves with fear;

And devil, as ‘t is, doth appear.

So, since against my will I found thee foul,

Deform’d and crooked in thy soul,

My reason straight did to my senses shew,

That they might be mistaken too:

Nay, when the world but knows how false you are,

There’s not a man will think you fair;

Thy shape will monstrous in their fancies be,

They’ll call their eyes as false as thee.

Be what thou wilt, hate will present thee so,

As Puritans do the Pope, and Papists Luther do.

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External links

Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus

Talking Writing Monster’s Page –

Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh

Poems in English 

• A Poet by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Meeting With Despair by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Man (In Memory of H. of M.) by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A King’s Soliloquy [On the Night of His Funeral] by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• In A Wood by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• “I Sometimes Think” by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Death-Day Recalled by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Conversation At Dawn by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Confession To A Friend In Trouble by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Commonplace Day by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Circular by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Christmas Ghost Story by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• Amabel by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave? by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• After The Visit by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• After Schiller by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• After A Journey by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• Additions: The Fire at Tranter Sweatley’s by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• “According to the Mighty Working” by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
• A Wife In London by Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

Doska or the Board – write anything

Search engines:

Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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