[N. Matheson]

For context, this poem is part of a speech from an ongoing creative writing project I am working on set in a fantasy world. As a result, it uses much archaism and outdated writing formats to obtain a sense of antiquity. If you don't like that, well that's just how my setting works.

V2
… for in her lives
A panoply of whispers, charms, and smiles
More fierce than feminine, as whetted steel
In wanton war, she wields her beauty’s hilt.
Her wits out-legion all th’ embattled hosts
That soldiers trade their arms to beg for alms;
Or, like th’ envenomed dart, her burning kiss
Is drawn with dalliance upon her lips,
A mortal arrow fletched with groans and sighs
That from her scarlet bow is swiftly loosed.
Her velvet arms, those slender instruments,
Which fan perdition’s flame with ecstasy,
Claiming usury’s interest for her loan
Of pleasures brief, which she demands in pain
With ev’ry idle bliss repaid to her
Times three, with jagged woes and barbed regrets.

V1
… for in her lives
A panoply of whispers, charms, and smiles
More fierce than feminine, as whetted steel
In wanton war, she wields her beauty’s hilt;
Her wits out-legion such a force of arms,
That fortune’s gallant soldier turns to alms;
Or, like th’ envenomed dart, her burning kiss
Is drawn with dalliance upon her lips,
A mortal arrow fletched with groans and sighs,
That from her scarlet bow is swiftly loosed;
Her velvet arms, those slender instruments,
That fan perdition’s flame with ecstasy,
Make pain with paradise a mutual peer;
For th’ usury of pleasure shall be pain,
Where ev’ry idle bliss is paid to her
In thrice, with jagged woes and barbed regrets.