RPO -- Sir George Etherege : To a Very Young Lady

Sir George Etherege (ca. 1635-1691)

To a Very Young Lady

1Sweetest bud of beauty, may

2No untimely frost decay

3Th' early glories which we trace

4Blooming in thy matchless face:

5But kindly opening, like the rose,

6Fresh beauties every day disclose,

7Such as by Nature are not shown

8In all the blossoms she has blown:

9And then, what conquest shall you make,

10Who hearts already daily take!

11Scorch'd in the morning with thy beams,

12How shall we bear those sad extremes

13Which must attend thy threat'ning eyes

14When thou shalt to thy noon arise?

Notes

1] First attributed to Etheredge by William Oldys in Biographia Britannica (1750).

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: A New Academy of Complements (London: Thomas Rooks, 1671). Wing 529 (anonymously).
First publication date: 1671
RPO poem editor: N. J. Endicott
RP edition: 2RP.1.515; RPO 1997-2000.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/18

Form: couplets

Other poems by Sir George Etherege