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Editor's Selection of Poems
Farewell, Ungrateful Traitor!

by John Dryden

       Farewell, ungrateful traitor! 
       Farewell, my perjur'd swain! 
       Let never injur'd woman 
       Believe a man again. 
       The pleasure of possessing 
       Surpasses all expressing, 
       But 'tis too short a blessing, 
       And love too long a pain. 

       'Tis easy to deceive us 
       In pity of your pain, 
       But when we love, you leave us 
       To rail at you in vain. 
       Before we have descried it, 
       There is no joy beside it, 
       But she that once has tried it 
       Will never love again. 

       The passion you pretended 
       Was only to obtain, 
       But once the charm is ended, 
       The charmer you disdain. 
       Your love by ours we measure 
       Till we have lost our treasure, 
       But dying is a pleasure 
       When living is a pain.
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