QUEEN VENUS, like a bunch of roses, Fat and pink, that splashed dew closes, Underneath dark mulberry trees, Wandered with the fair-haired breeze. Among the dark leaves, preening wings, Sit golden birds of light; each sings, "Will you accept the blue muslin?" As they peck the blackamoor mulberries' skin. Then came a sheep like a sparkling cloud; "Oh, ma'am, please, ma'am, sleek me proud, Come fleece and comb my golden wool And do not mind, ma'am, if you pull!" Her flocks came thick as the mulberries That grow on the dark, clear mulberry trees, As thick as the daisies in the sky . . . Prince Paris, Adonis; as each passed by She cried, "Come feed on buds as cold As my fleeced lamb-tailed river's gold, And you shall dance like each golden bird Of light that sings in dark trees unheard, And you shall skip like my lamb-tailed river, In my buttercup fields for ever." The lady Venus, with hair thick as wool, Cried "Come and be fleeced -- each sheepish fool!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CHILD TO HIS SICK GRANDFATHER by JOANNA BAILLIE GOD'S DREAM by WILLIAM NORRIS BURR THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN: 8. THE LEGEND OF PHILLIS by GEOFFREY CHAUCER PINDARIC ODE: TO THE NEW YEAR by ABRAHAM COWLEY OLNEY HYMNS: 26. ON OPENING A PLACE FOR SOCIAL PRAYER by WILLIAM COWPER THE POET'S THRIFT by GLADYS CROMWELL APPLES OF GOLD IN A NETWORK OF SILVER (FOR A FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY) by MARGARETTE BALL DICKSON |