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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  123. Silvia

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

William Shakespeare. 1564–1616

123. Silvia

WHO is Silvia? What is she? 
  That all our swains commend her? 
Holy, fair, and wise is she; 
  The heaven such grace did lend her, 
That she might admirèd be.         5
 
Is she kind as she is fair? 
  For beauty lives with kindness: 
Love doth to her eyes repair, 
  To help him of his blindness; 
And, being help’d, inhabits there.  10
 
Then to Silvia let us sing, 
  That Silvia is excelling; 
She excels each mortal thing 
  Upon the dull earth dwelling: 
To her let us garlands bring.  15