Ralph Augustus Benson

“ In the soft snare set by a clever coquette,
Only for something to say?
’Tis a glorious prowess, in sooth, with a word
To wound the trusting, and tame the proud,
Even as a leaf by a breath is stirr’d,
A spray by a dew-drop bow’d. ”

“ You’re not too engaged to stay with me
A minute or two in the air?”
A look that had scorned the tenderest guile,
A heart that deem’d itself stern and strong,
Is bent to the light of a Psyche smile,
And chain’d by a syren-song. ”