T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Beauty and Desire
Anonymous(A Broadside Song with music, c. 1720) |
ALL the materials are the same, | |
| Of Beauty and Desire, | |
| In fair Woman’s Goodly Frame | |
| No Brightness is without a Flame; | |
| No Flame without a Fire. | 5 |
| Then tell me what those Creatures are | |
| Who would be thought both Chaste and Fair. | |
| If on her Neck her Hair be spread, | |
| With many a curious Ring; | |
| That Heat, which serves to curl her Head | 10 |
| Will make her mad to be abed | |
| And do another Thing. | |
| If Modesty itself appear | |
| With Blushes in her Face, | |
| Think you the Blood that dances there, | 15 |
| Can revel it no other where? | |
| Or warm no other Place? | |
| And but of her Philosophy, | |
| What gives her Lips the Balm? | |
| What makes her Breasts to heave so high? | 20 |
| What spirits give Motion to her Eye, | |
| And moisture to her palm? | |
| Then, Celia, be not coy, for that | |
| Betrays thyself and thee; | |
| There’s not a Beauty nor a Grace, | 25 |
| Bedecks thy Body or thy Face, | |
| But pleads within for me. | |
| Then tell me what those Women are | |
| Who would be thought both Chaste and Fair. | |