CHILD of the sun, in whom his rays appear Hatch'd to that lustre as doth make thee wear Heav'n's livery in thy skin, what need'st thou fear The injury of air and change of clime, When thy exalted form is so sublime As to transcend all power of change or time? How proud are they that in their hair but show Some part of thee, thinking therein they owe The greatest beauty Nature can bestow, When thou art so much fairer to the sight, As beams each-where diffused are more bright Than their deriv'd and secondary light! But thou art cordial both to sight and taste, While each rare fruit seems in his time to haste To ripen in thee, till at length they waste Themselves to inward sweets, from whence again They, like elixirs, passing through each vein, An endless circulation do maintain. How poor are they, then, whom if we but greet, Think that raw juice which in their lips we meet Enough to make us hold their kisses sweet, When that rich odour which in thee is smelt Can itself to a balmy liquor melt, And make it to our inward senses felt! Leave then thy country soil and mother's home, Wander a planet this way, till thou come To give our lovers here their fatal doom; While if our beauties scorn to envy thine, It will be just they to a jaundice pine, And by thy gold show like some copper-mine. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AQUATINT FRAMED IN GOLD by AMY LOWELL VERY EARLY SPRING by KATHERINE MANSFIELD THE HEART OF THE BRUCE by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN BEPPO: A VENETIAN STORY by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE VANISHING BOAT by EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE THE SONG OF A TRAVELLER by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON FELISE by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE |