"Against Pleasure"
author: Katherine Philips
source date: 1667
language: en
availability: Published by Literature in Context under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

Against Pleasure. Set by Dr. Coleman.

1.

There's no such thing as pleasure here,
'Tis all a perfect cheat,
Which does but shine and disappear,
Whose charm is but deceit:
The empty bribe of yielding souls,
Which first betrays, and then controls.

2.

'Tis true, it looks at distance fair,
But if we do approach,
The fruit of Sodom [In the biblical accont, Sodom was a city destroyed by God for the wickedness of its inhabitants (Oxford English Dictionary).] will impair,
And perish at a touch;
It being than in fancy less,
And we expect more than possess.

3.

For by our pleasure we are cloy'd [Cloyed refers to being made weary by something that was initially pleasureable or sweet.]
And so desire is done;
Or else, like rivers, they make wide
The channels where they run;
And either way true bliss destroys,
Making us narrow, or our joys.

4.

We covet pleasure easily,
But ne'er true bliss possess;
For many things must make it be,
But one may make it less.
Nay, were our state as we would choose it,
'Twould be consumed by fear to lose it.

5.

What art thou, then, thou wingëd air,
More weak and swift than fame?
Whose next successor is despair,
And its attendant shame.
Th' experienced prince then reason had
Who said of Pleasure, — "It is mad."