GIVE me leave, fairest Cynthia, to envy Thy looking-glass far happier than I, To which thy naked beauties every morn Thou showest so freely, while thou dost adorn Thy richer hair with gems, and neatly deck With oriental pearls thy whiter neck, Which take the species of thy naked breast -- So white, I doubt if it can be exprest By the reflection of the purest glass, Which swans, snows, ceruses doth so surpass, As in comparison of it, these may Rather than white, be termed hoar or gray: Besides, all whites but thine may take a spot, Thine, the first matter of all whites, cannot: Maybe thou trusts thy glass's secrecy With dainties, yet unseen by any eye: All these thy favours I will well allow Unto my rival glass; but so, that thou Wilt not permit it justly to reflect Thy eye upon itself: I shall suspect, And jealous grow, that such reflex may move Thee (fair Narcissus like) to fall in love With thine own beauty's shadow: Love's sharp dart Shot 'gainst a stone may bound, and wound thy heart: Which if it should, alas! how sure were I To be past hope, and then past remedy. This to prevent, may'st thou when thou dost rise, Vouchsafe to dress thy beauties in my eyes. If these shall be too small, may, for thy sake, Hypochondriac melancholy make My body all of glass, all which shall be So made, and so constellated by thee, That as in crystal mirrors many a spot Is by infection of a look begot, This glass of thine if thou but frown, shall fly In thousand shivers broken by thine eye: Since then it hath this sympathy with thee, Let me not languish in a jealousy, To think this wonder may be brought to pass, Thy fair looks may inanimate thy glass, And make it my competitor: 'tis all one To give life to a glass, as make me stone. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WITCH-WIFE by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY AT THE FUNERAL OF A MINOR POET by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH FIRST ICE by KENNETH SLADE ALLING MOUNT PIERUS by ANTIPATER OF SIDON TO A CRITIC OF TENNYSON by AMBROSE BIERCE |