Give Me Leave to Rail at You by John Wilmot

Published: Jan. 17, 2008, 8:11 a.m.

b"Wilmot read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\\n\\n---------------------------------------------\\n\\n\\nGive Me Leave to Rail at You\\nby John Wilmot (1647 \\u2013 1680) \\n\\nGive me leave to rail at you, -\\nI ask nothing but my due:\\nTo call you false, and then to say\\nYou shall not keep my heart a day.\\nBut alas! against my will\\nI must be your captive still.\\nAh! be kinder, then, for I\\nCannot change, and would not die.\\n\\nKindness has resistless charms;\\nAll besides but weakly move;\\nFiercest anger it disarms,\\nAnd clips the wings of flying love.\\nBeauty does the heart invade,\\nKindness only can persuade;\\nIt gilds the lover's servile chain,\\nAnd makes the slave grow pleased again."