XCI

CHERRY-RIPE

HERE is a garden in her face

blow;

A heavenly paradise is that place,
Wherein all pleasant fruits do grow;
There cherries grow that none may buy,
Till Cherry-Ripe themselves do cry.

Those cherries fairly do enclose
Of orient pearl a double row,

Which when her lovely laughter shows,
They look like rose-buds fill'd with snow:
Yet them no peer nor prince may buy,
Till Cherry-Ripe themselves do cry.

Her eyes like angels watch them still;
Her brows like bended bows do stand,
Threat'ning with piercing frowns to kill
All that approach with eye or hand
These sacred cherries to come nigh,
- Till Cherry-Ripe themselves do cry!

A

XCII

THE POETRY OF DRESS

I

SWEET disorder in the dress

Kindles in clothes a wantonness:

A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distractión,

An erring lace, which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher, -
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbands to flow confusedly,
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat,
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility,

Do more bewitch me, than when art
Is too precise in every part.

XCIII

2

R. Herrick

WHENAS in silks my Julia goes

WH

Then, then (methinks) how sweetly flows

That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next, when I cast mine eyes and see
That brave vibration each way free;

O how that glittering taketh me!

R. Herrick

XCIV

3

My Love in her attire doth shew her wit,

MY

It doth so well become her:

For every season she hath dressings fit,
For Winter, Spring, and Summer.
No beauty she doth miss

When all her robes are on:

But Beauty's self she is

When all her robes are gone.

Anon.

XCV

ON A GIRDLE

HAT which her slender waist confined

THAT

Shall now my joyful temples bind :
No monarch but would give his crown
His arms might do what this has done.

It was my Heaven's extremest sphere,
The pale which held that lovely deer:
My joy, my grief, my hope, my love
Did all within this circle move.

A narrow compass! and yet there
Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair:
Give me but what this ribband bound,
Take all the rest the Sun goes round.

A heart as soft, a heart as kind,
A heart as sound and free

As in the whole world thou canst find,
That heart I'll give to thee.

1

Bid that heart stay, and it will stay,

To honour thy decree :

Or bid it languish quite away,
And 't shall do so for thee.

Bid me to weep, and I will weep
While I have eyes to see:
And having none, yet I will keep
A heart to weep for thee.

Bid me despair, and I 'll despair,
Under that cypress-tree :
Or bid me die, and I will dare
E'en Death, to die for thee.

Thou art my life, my love, my heart,
The very eyes of me,

And hast command of every part,

To live and die for thee.

R. Herrick

L

XCVII

OVE not me for comely grace,

For my pleasing eye or face,

Nor for any outward part,

No, nor for my constant heart,
For those may fail, or turn to ill,
So thou and I shall sever:

Keep therefore a true woman's eye,
And love me still, but know not why
So hast thou the same reason still
To doat upon me ever!

Anon.

XCVIII

́OT, Celia, that I juster am

NOT,

Or better than the rest;

For I would change each hour, like them, Were not my heart at rest.

But I am tied to very thee
By every thought I have ;
Thy face I only care to see,
Thy heart I only crave.

All that in woman is adored
In thy dear self I find ·
For the whole sex can but afford
The handsome and the kind.

Why then should I seek further store,
And still make love anew?

When change itself can give no more,
'Tis easy to be true.

Sir C. Sedley

XCIX

TO ALTHEA FROM PRISON

WHEN

HEN Love with unconfinéd wings
Hovers within my gates,

And my divine Althea brings

To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair
And fetter'd to her eye,

The birds that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty.