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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  168. Cherry-Ripe

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

Thomas Campion. 1567?–1619

168. Cherry-Ripe

THERE is a garden in her face 
  Where roses and white lilies blow; 
A heavenly paradise is that place, 
  Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow: 
    There cherries grow which none may buy         5
    Till ‘Cherry-ripe’ themselves do cry. 
 
Those cherries fairly do enclose 
  Of orient pearl a double row, 
Which when her lovely laughter shows, 
  They look like rose-buds fill’d with snow;  10
    Yet them nor peer nor prince can buy 
    Till ‘Cherry-ripe’ themselves do cry. 
 
Her eyes like angels watch them still; 
  Her brows like bended bows do stand, 
Threat’ning with piercing frowns to kill  15
  All that attempt with eye or hand 
    Those sacred cherries to come nigh, 
    Till ‘Cherry-ripe’ themselves do cry.