ALL ye who do desire to write,
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Upon a Lady's comly Feature,
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Come help me now for to indite,
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Upon a well deserving Creature,
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Whose like is not in all this Land,
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Nor know I any can bestead her,
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Of all the Maids of our Country,
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My Love she is the Ring-leader.
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If Diana were to dance around,
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The Trojan walls, they'd sound for joy?
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Or Queen Helen whom Paris found
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Who Caus'd the overthrow of Troy:
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If Juno were among them set
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Or Venus fair as Poets dread her
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Or Pallas that Godess of wit.
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My Love she is the Ring-Leader
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She's resolute as Lucretia,
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She's comely as renouned Esther,
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She's constant as Tirentia,
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She is more shining than Silvester,
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She's virtuous as Penelope,
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My Tongue and Pen shall ay bestead her,
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Of all the Maids of our Country,
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My Love she is the Ring-leader.
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Had Hector or Achilles seen her,
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She would have saved them both from killing
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Leander would not drowned been
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But to behold her would been willing,
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Mars he would a wooing go,
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If he had known to be a Speeder,
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Neptune and all the Gods do know,
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My Love to be the Ring-leader.
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Her equal's seldom to be seen
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Diana seems the way to give her,
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Variana that Arabian Queen
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Strives from the wind and rain to free her
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The Muses of Parnassus hill
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Confess their banks did never breed her,
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The stately Nymphs of Helicon,
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Of all my Love's the Ring leader.
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To Sidney and the rest that pass,
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For Noble writers of Romances
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She might be their looking Glasses,
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To highten and enlarge their Fancies
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For she is like a gallant Book,
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And he that has the Skill to read her,
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Will say when on her he doth look,
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That my Dear Love is the Ring-leader.
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Had Horace seen her questionless,
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He would have judged it his duty,
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In lofty verses to express,
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Her charming admirable Beauty
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Mixt with the Lilly and the Rose
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She's stately like unto the Cedar
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When she to Kirk or Mercat goes,
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Among them she's the Ring leader
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Now to conclude my simple Rime,
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None worthy to be likned unto her,
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She is the Glory of her Time
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Who gets her leaves none such behind her
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A virtuous fair and comely Maid
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I pray the Gods from ill may free her,
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In Inverrary she is well known,
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My love to be the Ring-leader
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