Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Sir Henry Wotton. 15681639178. Elizabeth of Bohemia
YOU meaner beauties of the night, | |
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? | 5 |
You curious chanters of the wood, | |
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? | 10 |
You violets that first appear, | |
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? | 15 |
So, when my mistress shall be seen | |
In form and beauty of her mind, | |
By virtue first, then choice, a Queen, | |
Tell me, if she were not design’d | |
Th’ eclipse and glory of her kind. | 20 |