The Gentleman's Answer Poem by Samuel Bowden

Ut vidi, ut perii

Your lines, my Friend, on Chloe's eyes,
Nor raise my wonder, or surprize,
Since every tender breast she fills
With pains, that baffle all your pills.
Here Laudanum, here Amber fails,
No quantum sufficit prevails.


But while you my machine defame,
Certes, for this you merit blame;
Had not that little engine there,
Your eyes diverted from the fair,
Her radiant flashes blaze so bright,
They wou'd have kill'd the Poet quite.


Thus you, with joy, I save, my friend,
From such a miserable end.
But on myself what torments wait,
When every look declares my fate.
While I with mimic art aspire
To rival her celestial fire;
Salmoneus like, my bolts I dart,
'Till Jove's true lightning rends my heart.