Byron's Poetical Works, Volume 1

WRITTEN IN “LETTERS OF AN ITALIAN NUN AND AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN, BY J. J. ROUSSEAU; [1] FOUNDED ON FACTS.”

    “Away, away,—­your flattering arts
    May now betray some simpler hearts;
    And you will smile at their believing,
    And they shall weep at your deceiving.”

[Footnote 1:  A second edition of this work, of which the title is, Letters, etc., translated from the French of Jean Jacques Rousseau, was published in London, in 1784.  It is, probably, a literary forgery.]

ANSWER TO THE FOREGOING, [i] ADDRESSED TO MISS——.

  Dear simple girl, those flattering arts,
  (From which thou’dst guard frail female hearts,)[ii]
  Exist but in imagination,
  Mere phantoms of thine own creation; [iii]
  For he who views that witching grace,
  That perfect form, that lovely face,
  With eyes admiring, oh! believe me,
  He never wishes to deceive thee: 
  Once in thy polish’d mirror glance

  Thou’lt there descry that elegance
  Which from our sex demands such praises,
  But envy in the other raises.—­
  Then he who tells thee of thy beauty,

  Believe me, only does his duty: 
  Ah! fly not from the candid youth;
  It is not flattery,—­’tis truth. [vi]

July, 1804.

[Footnote i:  Answer to the above. [4to] ]

[Footnote ii:  From which you’d.

[Footnote iii: 

  Mere phantoms of your own creation;
  For he who sees. [4to]]

[Footnote iv: 

  Once let you at your mirror glance
  You’ll there descry that elegance,

[Footnote v: 

  Then he who tells you of your beauty.

[Footnote vi: 

  It is not flattery, but truth.