On a Picture painted by Herself, representing Two Nymphs of Diana

WE are Diana’s virgin train,

Descended of no mortal strain;

Our bows and arrows are our goods,

Our pallaces, the lofty woods,

The hills and dales, at early morn,

Resound and eccho with our horn;

We chase the hind and fallow deer,

The wolf and boar both dread our spear,

In swiftness we outstrip the wind,

An eye and thought we leave behind;

We fauns and shaggy satyrs awe,

To sylvan pow’rs we give the law:

Whatever does provoke our hate,

Our javelins strike, as sure as fate;

We bathe in springs, to cleanse the soil,

Contracted by our eager toil;

In which we shine like glittering beams

Or christal in the christal streams;

Though Venus we transcend in form,

No wanton flames our bosomes warm!

If you ask where such wights do dwell,

In what bless’t clime, that so excel?

The poets onely that can tell.