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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


PARIS'S SECOND JUDGMENT, UPON THE THREE DAUGHTERS OF ROBERT CAESAR by RICHARD LOVELACE

Poet Analysis

First Line: BEHOLD! THREE SISTER-WONDERS, IN WHOM MET
Last Line: "WHAT PITY THE WHOLE WORLD IS BUT ONE BALL!"
Subject(s): SISTERS;

BEHOLD! three sister-wonders, in whom met,
Distinct and chaste, the splendours counterfeit
Of Juno, Venus, and the warlike Maid,
Each in their three divinities array'd!
The majesty and state of heav'n's great queen,
And when she treats the gods, her noble mien;
The sweet victorious beauties and desires
O' th' sea-born princess, empress too of fires;
The sacred arts and glorious laurels torn
From the fair brow o' th' goddess father-born:
All these were quarter'd in each snowy coat,
With canton'd honours of their own to boot.
Paris, by fate new-wak'd from his dead cell,
Is charg'd to give his doom impossible.
He views in each the brav'ry of all Ide,
Whilst one, as once three, doth his soul divide.
Then sighs, so equally they 're glorious all,
"What pity the whole world is but one ball!"



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