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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  The Vision

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

The Vision

By Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
 
(Songs from Hesperides, 1648)

SITTING alone, as one forsook,
Close by a silver-shedding brook,
With hands held up to Love, I wept;
And after sorrows spent I slept;
Then in a vision I did see        5
A glorious form appear to me:
A virgin’s face she had; her dress
Was like a sprightly Spartaness.
A silver bow, with green silk strung,
Down from her comely shoulders hung:        10
And as she stood, the wanton air
Dandled the ringlets of her hair.
Her legs were such Diana shows
When, tucked up, she a-hunting goes;
With buskins shortened to descry        15
The happy dawning of her thigh:
Which when I saw, I made access
To kiss that tempting nakedness:
But she forbad me with a wand
Of myrtle she had in her hand:        20
And, chiding me, said: Hence, remove,
Herrick, thou art too coarse to love.