Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden
Richard Crashaw (c. 16131649)Wishes. To His Supposed Mistress
W
That not impossible she
That shall command my heart and me;
Lock’d up from mortall eye,
In shady leaves of Destiny;
Of studied Fate stand forth,
And teach her fair steps tread our Earth;
Idea, take a shrine
Of crystal flesh, through which to shine;
Bespeak her to my blisses,
And be ye call’d, my absent kisses.
That owes not all its duty
To gaudy tire or glistring shoe tie.
A face that ’s best
By its own beauty drest,
And can alone commend the rest.
A cheek where Youth,
And blood, with pen of Truth
Write, what their reader sweetly ru’th.
Lips, where all day
A lover’s kiss may play,
Yet carry nothing thence away.
Eyes, that displace
The neighbour diamond, and out-face
That sunshine, by their own sweet grace.
Jewels, but to declare
How much themselves more precious are.
Days, that need borrow,
No part of their good morrow,
From a forespent night of sorrow.
Life, that dares send
A challenge to his end,
And when it comes say, Welcome friend!
I wish her store
Of worth may leave her poor
Of wishes; and I wish—no more.
That her, whose radiant brows
Weave them a garland of my vows;
What these lines wish to see:
I seek no further: it is she.