Marvell read by Classic Poetry Aloud:
http://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/
Giving voice to the poetry of the past.
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The Fair Singer
by Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678)
To make a final conquest of all me,
Love did compose so sweet an enemy,
In whom both beauties to my death agree,
Joining themselves in fatal harmony;
That, while she with her eyes my heart does bind,
She with her voice might captivate my mind.
I could have fled from one but singly fair ;
My disentangled soul itself might save,
Breaking the curlèd trammels of her hair ;
But how should I avoid to be her slave,
When subtle art invisibly can wreathe
My fetters of the very air I breathe ?
It had been easy fighting in some plain,
Where victory might hang in equal choice,
But all resistance against her is vain,
Who has the advantage both of eyes and voice;
And all my forces needs must be undone,
She having gained both the wind and sun.