NAKED love did to thine eye,
Fairest, once to warm him fly;
But its purer flame and light
Scorch'd his wings and spoil'd his sight.
Forced from thence, he went to rest
In the soft couch of thy breast;
But there met a frost so great
As his torch extinguish'd straight!
When poor Cupid, being constrain'd
His cold bed to leave, complain'd,
"What a lodging's here for me,
If all ice and fire she be!"
From Wit's Recreations, 1663.
On the Eyes and Breasts of the Lady on whom he was Enamoured.
LADY, on your eyes I gazed;
When amazed
At their brightness,
On your breasts I cast a look,
No less took
With their whiteness:
Both I justly did admire,
These all snow and those all fire.
Whilst these wonders I survey'd,
Thus I said
In suspense:
Nature could have done no less,
To express
Her providence,
Than that two such fair worlds might
Have two suns to give them light.
From Tixall Poetry,[74] 1813.
A Song[75] for Drinking.