In the short poem, ‘Thwarted Attempt of the Poet’ (‘Gestuit voornemen des Dichters’), published in 1716 by Hubert Korneliszoon Poot (1689-1733), the ‘I’ claims that he planned to write an epic poem in the wake of Virgil (Maro), with references to the ancient mythological gods of war Pallas and Mars (Mavors). In the first two lines, Poot explicitly links heroism with violence: whereas the reference to the hero's feather from Pallas's helm seems quite innocent, he immediately associates it with blood dripping from Mars's shield. The poet wanted to follow Virgil's example and write in a grand style about the fame and glory of war, but despite his attempts, he cannot but stray from his intent. He intended to avoid soft and frivolous melodies associated with lovers frolicking, and to describe the destruction and violence of war in the grand and harsh style of epic poetry. However, he seems to be unable to write anything but love poetry. The reference to Ovid (Naso) at this point is telling: in the first poem of his Amores, Ovid explains that he wanted to write epic poetry, expressed by opening the poem with the same word as Virgil's Aeneid, ‘arma’ (weapons), but this intention is thwarted by Cupid. After Ovid, this shift in intent from epic to love poetry developed into a topos in lyrical (love) poetry. Epic poetry is said to discuss war, violent battle, honour and glory in a grave, sublime tone, while love poetry is more playful, which is also reflected in the metre: according to Ovid, Cupid stole a metric foot from the epic alexandrine hexameter, but changed the epic's metric scheme into the elegiac couplets of love poetry, which are formed by a hexameter followed by a pentameter.

However, unlike Ovid, Poot does not continue to address the divine Cupid, but the earthly object of his love, Rosemond (literally: Rose-mouth). He claims to hate the symbols of war, which stand for the brutish frenzy that is taken to be heroic virtue (the Dutch text mentions heldendeugt, a hero's virtue, here translated as ‘brave’).