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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  The Description of Silvestro’s Lady

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

The Description of Silvestro’s Lady

By Robert Greene (1558–1592)
 
(From Morando, The Tritameron of Love, 1587)

HER stature like the tall straight cedar-trees
Whose stately bulks do fame th’ Arabian groves;
A pace like princely Juno when she brav’d
The Queen of Love ’fore Paris in the vale;
A front beset with love and courtesy;        5
A face like modest Pallas when she blush’d
A silly shepherd should be beauty’s judge;
A lip sweet ruby-red, grac’d with delight;
A cheek wherein for interchange of hue
A wrangling strife ’twixt lily and the rose;        10
Her eyes two twinkling stars in winter-nights
When chilling frost doth clear the azur’d sky;
Her hair of golden hue doth dim the beams
That proud Apollo giveth from his coach;
The Gnidian doves, whose white and snowy pens        15
Do stain the silver-streaming ivory,
May not compare with those two moving hills
Which, topp’d with pretty teats, discover down a vale
Wherein the God of Love may deign to sleep;
A foot like Thetis when she tripp’d the sands        20
To steal Neptunus’ favour with her steps;
In fine a piece, despite of beauty, fram’d
To show what Nature’s lineage could afford.