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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  Portia’s Picture

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

I. Admiration

Portia’s Picture

William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

From “The Merchant of Venice,” Act III. Sc. 2.

FAIR Portia’s counterfeit? What demi-god

Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?

Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,

Seem they in motion? Here are severed lips,

Parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar

Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs

The painter plays the spider; and hath woven

A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,

Faster than gnats in cobwebs: but her eyes!—

How could he see to do them? having made one,

Methinks it should have power to steal both his,

And leave itself unfurnished.