T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Description of Silvestros Lady
By Robert Greene (15581592)(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. | |