A stubborn heart! A sad mistake,
For its too tender owner’s sake
I would it were of hardest rock,
Such as no glancing eye could shock.
What could you cruel Dido mean?
You knew me not, or must have seen
The portrait you have sketched so free
Not e’en the Antipodes could be
More opposite, than that to me.
If snow’s like fire, if steel is soft as cotton,
Or if great Snowdon’s like a waistcoat button,
Prove these dear maid & then, the circle square
Tell me in Hebrew, that you’re wondrous fair,
Trace footsteps on the boundless ocean,
Discover the perpetual motion
(The last by much too easily we find
In the dear eloquence of womankind,)
Then, am I adamant — say where you dwell
You, only you shall take me from my shell.
Ictinus