To Fix Her!—’twere A Task As Vain Poem by Tobias Smollett

To fix her!—’twere a task as vain
To count the April drops of rain,
To sow in Afric’s barren soil,
Or tempests hold within a toil.

I know it, friend, she’s light as air,
False as the fowler’s artful snare,
Inconstant as the passing wind,
As winter’s dreary frost unkind.

She’s such a miser, too, in love,
Its joys she’ll neither share nor prove,
Though hundreds of gallants await
From her victorious eyes their fate.

Blushing at such inglorious reign,
I sometimes strive to break her chain,
My reason summon to my aid,
Resolved no more to be betray’d.

Ah! friend, ’tis but a short-lived trance,
Dispell’d by one enchanting glance;
She need but look, and, I confess,
Those looks completely curse or bless.

So soft, so elegant, so fair,
Sure something more than human’s there;
I must submit, for strife is vain,
’Twas Destiny that forged the chain.