9 
And then they declar’d I was idle and sly, 
While they fondled the Dove with the pretty pink eye 
And they said it was plaintive and innocent too, 
An emblem of Constancy all the world through. 
In vain I assur’d them that never could be, 
’Twas an attribute always pertaining to me; 
And while in my prison, the motto I wore, 
But lost it as soon as I pass’d the cage door: 
When Venus releas’d me and set my wings free, 
I flutter’d and dropt it, alas ! in my glee. 
Then I flew to the flower where Constancy dwells 
And bade the Campanula shake her Blue-hells , 
And proclaim that the motto which now is the Dove’s, 
By all that is right ought to be little Love’s. 
The tale pleas’d the goddess who playfully smil’d 
To hear how fair Venus imprison’d her child, 
Then darting upon him a glance from an eye 
As bright as the sun and as blue as the sky— 
Young truant, she cried, if thou lay by thy bow 
To the garden of Beauty together we’ll go ; 
