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Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

What Kind of Mistress He would Have


              1Be the mistress of my choice,
              2Clean in manners, clear in voice;
              3Be she witty, more than wise,
              4Pure enough, though not precise;
              5Be she showing in her dress,
              6Like a civil wilderness,
              7That the curious may detect
              8Order in a sweet neglect;
              9Be she rolling in her eye,
            10Tempting all the passers by;
            11And each ringlet of her hair,
            12An enchantment, or a snare,
            13For to catch the lookers on;
            14But herself held fast by none.
            15Let her Lucrece all day be,
            16Thais in the night, to me.
            17Be she such, as neither will
            18Famish me, nor overfill.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Robert Herrick, Hesperides (London: for John Williams and F. Eglesfield to be sold by Thomas Hunt, 1648), of which a section called "His Noble Numbers: or, his Pious Pieces" has a separate title-page dated 1647. Facs. edn. Menston: Scolar, 1969. PR 3512 H4 1648A ROBA
First publication date: 1648
RPO poem editor: N. J. Endicott
RP edition: 3RP 1.203.
Recent editing: 4:2002/2/6

Form: Couplets

Other poems by Robert Herrick

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