Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden
Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639)On His Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia
Y
That poorly satisfy our eyes
More by your number than your light;
You common people of the skies;
What are you when the moon shall rise?
That warble forth Dame Nature’s lays,
Thinking your passions understood
By your weak accents; what ’s your praise,
When Philomel her voice shall raise?
By your pure purple mantles known
Like the proud virgins of the year,
As if the spring were all your own;
What are you when the rose is blown?
In form and beauty of her mind,
By virtue first, then choice, a Queen,
Tell me if she were not designed
The eclipse and glory of her kind?