title: Song. - Tune, German Spa
author: Henry Livingston Jr.
date: 1791
source: New-York Magazine; or, Literary Repository, Mar 1791, p. 173, signed R; tune "German Spa" is in Livingston's music manuscript. URL: https://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/germanspa.htm (fetched via https://web.archive.org/web/20250522014115/https://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/germanspa.htm)
form: trochaic tetrameter (song)
lines: 24
attribution: probable
notes: Light song in a woman's voice. Not in MS; attributed by pseudonym R and the tune in his music book. Printing confirmed independently in the archive.org OCR of the Mar 1791 issue. Site heading/headnote: SONG. - Tune, German Spa

Shrew'd remarkers often say
Men were formed to betray;
Form'd to fascinate the fair,
Then to plunge them in despair:
Tyrants of creation made,
Prone like tyrants to invade!
Wanting what they can't enjoy,
And to love unknowing.

Feigning rapture when we're by,
Willing at our feet to die:
Vow, the smiles or frowns of fate
On important females wait.
If, unversed in their arts,
We surrender up our hearts;
Cool, they view the sacrifice,
And the maid expiring.

While my heart is yet my own,
Nor my soft affections flown;
Ev'ry passion at command --
Free my heart as free my hand;
Cool, I'll hear the tale of love,
'Till convinc'd, I may approve:
Then I'll fly to meet my swain,
Nor disguise my rapture.