T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Maidenhead
By Abraham Cowley (16181667)(From The Mistress, 1668) THOU worst estate ev’n of the sex that’s worst;1. | |
Therefore by Nature made at first, | |
T’ attend the weakness of our birth! | |
Slight outward Curtain to the Nuptial Bed! | |
Thou Case to buildings not yet finished! | 5 |
Who like the Center of the Earth, | |
Dost heaviest things attract to thee, | |
Though Thou a point imaginary be. | |
2. A thing God thought for Mankind so unfit, | |
That his first Blessing ruin’d it. | 10 |
Cold frozen Nurse of fiercest fires! | |
Who, like the parched plains of Africk’s sand, | |
(A sterile and a wild unlovely Land) | |
Art always scorch’d with hot desires, | |
Yet barren quite, didst thou not bring | 15 |
Monsters and Serpents forth, thy self to sting! | |
3. Thou that bewitchest men, whilst thou dost dwell | |
Like a close Conjurer in his Cell! | |
And fear’st the day’s discov’ring Eye! | |
No wonder ’tis at all that thou shouldst be | 20 |
Such tedious and unpleasant Company, | |
Who liv’st so Melancholily! | |
Thou thing of subtle, slippery kind, | |
Which Women lose, and yet no Man can find. | |
4. Although I think thou never found wilt be, | 25 |
Yet I’m resolv’d to search for thee; | |
The search it self rewards the pains; | |
So, though the Chymick his great secret miss, | |
(For neither it in Art nor Nature is) | |
Yet things well worth his toil he gains: | 30 |
And does his Charge and Labour pay | |
With good unsought experiments by the way. | |
5. Say what thou wilt, Chastity is no more | |
Thee, than a Porter is his Door. | |
In vain to honour they pretend, | 35 |
Who guard themselves with Ramparts and with Walls; | |
Them only Fame the truly valiant calls, | |
Who can an open breach defend. | |
Of thy quick loss can be no doubt, | |
Within so Hated, and so Lov’d without. | 40 |