You Meaner Beauties Of The Night
You Meaner Beauties Of The Night
Original Text
Michael East, Cantus. The sixt set of bookes (London: T. Snodham for M.L. and A.B., 1624). STC 7466
2 That poorly satisfy our eyes
3More by your number than your light;
4 You common people of the skies,
5 What are you when the sun shall rise?
6You curious chanters of the wood,
7 That warble forth Dame Nature's lays,
8Thinking your voices understood
9 By your weak accents; what's your praise
11You violets that first appear,
12 By your pure purple mantles known,
13Like the proud virgins of the year,
14 As if the spring were all your own;
15 What are you when the rose is blown?
16So, when my mistress shall be seen
17 In form and beauty of her mind,
18By virtue first, then choice, a queen,
19 Tell me, if she were not design'd
20 Th' eclipse and glory of her kind?
Notes
1] One of the most popular poems of the time. Addressed to "his mistress, the Queen of Bohemia", i.e., Elizabeth, daughter of James I, and wife of the ill-fated Frederick V, Elector Palatine and for a short time in 1619 King of Bohemia, until he was driven out by the Spanish and the Austrians. Back to Line
10] Philomel: the nightingale. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1624
RPO poem Editors
N. J. Endicott
RPO Edition
2RP.1.251; RPO 1996-2000.
Rhyme