PAINTER, by unmatch'd desert Master of the Rhodian art, Come, my absent mistress take, As I shall describe her: make First her hair, as black as bright, And if colors so much right Can but do her, let it too Smell of aromatic dew; Underneath this shade, must thou Draw her alabaster brow; Her dark eyebrows so dispose That they neither part nor close, But by a divorce so slight Be disjoin'd, may cheat the sight: From her kindly killing eye Make a flash of lightning fly, Sparkling like Minerva's, yet Like Cythera's mildly sweet: Roses in milk swimming seek For the pattern of her cheek: In her lip such moving blisses, As from all may challenge kisses; Round about her neck (outvying Parian stone) the Graces flying; And o'er all her limbs at last A loose purple mantle cast; But so ordered that the eye Some part naked may descry, An essay by which the rest That lies hidden, may be guess'd. So, to life th' hast come so near, All of her, but voice, is here. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FOR THE NEW YEAR by EDWIN MARKHAM KEATS TO FANNY BRAWNE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS BY THE PACIFIC by HERBERT BASHFORD THE AUTHOR TO HER BOOK by ANNE BRADSTREET FORGETFULNESS by HAROLD HART CRANE GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH ENTERS INTO HEAVEN by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY |