A Thousand Martyrs by Aphra Behn. Read by Daniel Avinash.

'A Thousand Martyrs' by Aphra Behn is a powerful exploration of faith, persecution, and the enduring strength of the human spirit.

The poem begins with the speaker stating that they have made “A thousand martyrs” for the cause of their own pleasure. They come to them willingly, and they burn them up until they are tired. The speaker has skillful control over their own emotions. They are able to keep themselves from feeling any true emotion for someone they sleep with but also appear like they do feel something.

This fact allows them to move easily from lover to lover, taking as they please and discarding those they grow bored with. The speaker feels superior to those around them, stating that no one else is of the same mind as they are and no one else escapes from relationships unscathed. They disdain those who spend their lives whining about love and losing love and feel it is far better to “rove” or move from person to person and from place to place without allowing love to truly influence them.

Read by Daniel Avinash🕺🏻

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🎙️Performed, recorded & mastered in Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺 by Daniel Avinash. All Rights Reserved.

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A Thousand Martyrs by Aphra Behn
A thousand martyrs I have made,
All sacrificed to my desire;
A thousand beauties have betrayed,
That languish in resistless fire.
The untamed heart to hand I brought,
And fixed the wild and wandering thought.

I never vowed nor sighed in vain
But both, though false, were well received.
The fair are pleased to give us pain,
And what they wish is soon believed.
And though I talked of wounds and smart,
Love’s pleasures only touched my heart.

Alone the glory and the spoil
I always laughing bore away;
The triumphs, without pain or toil,
Without the hell, the heav’n of joy.
And while I thus at random rove
Despise the fools that whine for love.


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