Unhappy man! to whom so bright she shone,
  The fatal gift, her tempting self, unknown! 
  The winds were silent, all the waves asleep,
  And heaven was traced upon the flattering deep;
  But whilst he looks, unmindful of a storm,
  And thinks the water wears a stable form,
  What dreadful din around his ears shall rise! 
  What frowns confuse his picture of the skies! 180

   At first the creature Man was framed alone,
  Lord of himself, and all the world his own. 
  For him the Nymphs in green forsook the woods,
  For him the Nymphs in blue forsook the floods;
  In vain the Satyrs rage, the Tritons rave;
  They bore him heroes in the secret cave. 
  No care destroy’d, no sick disorder prey’d,
  No bending age his sprightly form decay’d,
  No wars were known, no females heard to rage,
  And poets tell us, ’twas a golden age. 190

   When woman came, those ills the box confined
  Burst furious out, and poison’d all the wind,

   From point to point, from pole to pole they flew,
  Spread as they went, and in the progress grew: 
  The Nymphs, regretting, left the mortal race,
  And, altering Nature, wore a sickly face: 
  New terms of folly rose, new states of care;
  New plagues to suffer, and to please, the fair! 
  The days of whining, and of wild intrigues,
  Commenced, or finish’d, with the breach of leagues; 200
  The mean designs of well-dissembled love;
  The sordid matches never join’d above;
  Abroad, the labour, and at home the noise,
  (Man’s double sufferings for domestic joys)
  The curse of jealousy; expense, and strife;
  Divorce, the public brand of shameful life;
  The rival’s sword; the qualm that takes the fair;
  Disdain for passion, passion in despair—­
  These, and a thousand yet unnamed, we find;
  Ah, fear the thousand yet unnamed behind! 210

   Thus on Parnassus tuneful Hesiod sung,
  The mountain echoed, and the valley rung,
  The sacred groves a fix’d attention show,
  The crystal Helicon forbore to flow,
  The sky grew bright, and (if his verse be true)
  The Muses came to give the laurel too. 
  But what avail’d the verdant prize of wit,
  If Love swore vengeance for the tales he writ? 
  Ye fair offended, hear your friend relate
  What heavy judgment proved the writer’s fate, 220
  Though when it happen’d, no relation clears;
  ’Tis thought in five, or five and twenty years.

   Where, dark and silent, with a twisted shade
  The neighbouring woods a native arbour made,
  There oft a tender pair for amorous play
  Retiring, toy’d the ravish’d hours away;
  A Locrian youth, the gentle Troilus he,
  A fair Milesian, kind Evanthe she: 
  But swelling Nature, in a fatal hour,
  Betray’d the secrets of the conscious bower; 230
  The dire disgrace her brothers count their own,
  And track her steps, to make its author known.