THE WOMAN WOMAN NOT she with traitorous kiss her Saviour stung, She, while apostles shrank, could dangers brave, Eaton Stannard Barrett [1786-1820] WOMAN THERE in the fane a beauteous creature stands, A full-orbed bosom and a weight of care; Whose teeth like pearls, whose lips like cherries, show, And fawn-like eyes still tremble as they glow. From the Sanskrit of Calidasa SIMPLEX MUNDITIIS From "Epicone" STILL to be neat, still to be dressed As you were going to a feast; Still to be powdered, still perfumed: Though art's hid causes are not found, Give me a look, give me a face, Than all the adulteries of art; They strike mine eyes, but not my heart. Ben Jonson [1573?-1637] DELIGHT IN DISORDER A SWEET disorder in the dress An erring lace, which here and there A winning wave, deserving note, In the tempestuous petticoat: A careless shoe-string, in whose tie Do more bewitch me than when art Is too precise in every part. Robert Herrick (1591-1674] A PRAISE OF HIS LADY GIVE place, you ladies, and begone! The virtue of her lively looks I wish to have none other books In each of her two crystal eyes It would you all in heart suffice I think Nature hath lost the mould Where she her shape did take; So fair a creature make. A Praise of His Lady 379 She may be well compared Unto the Phoenix kind, Whose like was never seen nor heard, That any man can find. In life she is Diana chaste, In truth Penelope; In word and eke in deed steadfast. If all the world were sought so far, Her roseal color comes and goes More ruddier, too, than doth the rose At Bacchus' feast none shall her meet, Nor at no wanton play, Nor gazing in an open street, The modest mirth that she doth use Is mixed with shamefastness; All vice she doth wholly refuse, And hateth idleness. O Lord! it is a world to see Truly she doth so far exceed How might I do to get a graff Of this unspotted tree? For all the rest are plain but chaff, This gift alone I shall her give: John Heywood [1497?-1580?] ON A CERTAIN LADY AT COURT I KNOW a thing that's most uncommon; (Envy, be silent and attend!) I know a reasonable woman, Handsome and witty, yet a friend. Not warped by passion, awed by rumor; Not grave through pride, nor gay through folly; An equal mixture of good-humor And sensible soft melancholy. "Has she no faults then (Envy says), Sir?” Yes, she has one, I must aver: When all the world conspires to praise her, The woman's deaf, and does not hear. Alexander Pope [1688-1744] PERFECT WOMAN SHE was a phantom of delight When first she gleamed upon my sight; A lovely apparition, sent To be a moment's ornament; Her eyes as stars of twilight fair; The Solitary-Hearted I saw her upon nearer view, A Spirit, yet a Woman too! Her household motions light and free, A countenance in which did meet And now I see with eye serene 381 William Wordsworth (1770-1850] THE SOLITARY-HEARTED SHE was a queen of noble Nature's crowning, But if she smiled, a light was on her face, A clear, cool kindliness, a lunar beam Of peaceful radiance, silvering o'er the stream A visitation, bright and transitory. But she is changed,-hath felt the touch of sorrow, O grief! when Heaven is forced of earth to borrow |