Love
A Pastoral Protest of Love by Damon to Stella
From Clarastella (1650), Poems, &c.
When I thee all o'r do view
I all o'r must love thee too.
By that smooth forehead wher's exprest
The candour of thy peaceful breast:
By those fair twin-like-stars that shine,
And by those apples of thine eyn:
By the Lambkins and the Kids
Playing 'bout thy fair eie-lids:
By each peachie blossom'd cheek,
And thy Sattin skin more sleek
And white then Flora's whitest Lillies
Or the maiden Daffadillies:
By that Ivorie porch thy nose:
By those double blanched rows
Of teeth, as in pure Coral set:
By each azure rivolet,
Running in thy temples, and
Those flowrie meadows 'twixt them stand:
By each Pearl-tipt ear by Nature, as
On each a Jewel pendant was:
By those lips all dew'd with bliss,
Made happy in each others kiss:
By those pure Vermilion cherries
Thy red nipples, and those strawberries
Swimming there as set in cream:
By those two curld locks, that seem
To wreath thy Lover in wav'd art
That from thee he ne'r should part:
By those silk tresses soft as down
Of tender Eunuches newly blown,
That vail your body round when e'r
In your own shades you'd less appear:
By that silver stately neck
Doth thy gems more grace and deck
Then they can it: by those two
Soft and wool-warme mounts of snow:
By each Alablaster hand,
And those slender joynts that stand
So streight and closely set, each palm
Seems a young tree, distilling balm:
Midst that pregnant Hemisphear
By the fair knot that's planted there:
By those moving columns bear
This Globe and the lov'd frame uprear:
By those pretty nimble feet
Wont in skilful measures meet:
By the neat fabrick of the whole,
Fair as the world from either Pole,
Whose each part is Paradise,
And Heav'n both in, and round, it is.
By thy self, when thee I view
I love thy all, and each part too.
Cite this poem
MLA
Heath, Robert. “A Pastoral Protest of Love by Damon to Stella.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/heath_r/56/.
Chicago
Heath, Robert. “A Pastoral Protest of Love by Damon to Stella.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/heath_r/56/.
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