MY love in her attire doth shew her wit,
It doth so well become her:
For every season she hath dressings fit,
For winter, spring, and summer.
No beauty she doth miss
When all her robes are on;
But Beauty's self she is
When all her robes are gone.
From The New Academy of Compliments, 1671.
LIKE to the wealthy island thou shalt lie,
And like the sea about it I;
Thou like fair Albion to the sailors' sight,
Spreading her beauteous bosom all in white;
Like the kind Ocean I will be,
With loving arms for ever clasping thee;
But I'll embrace thee gentlier far than so
As their fresh banks soft rivers do;
Nor shall the proudest planet boast a power
Of making my full love to ebb an hour:
It never dry or low can prove
Whilst my unwasted fountain feeds my love.
Such heat and vigour shall our kisses bear
As if like doves w' engender'd there;
No bound nor rule my pleasures shall endure,
In love there's none too much an epicure.
Nought shall my hands or lips control;
I'll kiss thee through, I'll kiss thy very soul.
Yet nothing but the night our sport shall know,
Night that's both blind and silent too.
Alpheus found not a more secret trace
His loved Sicanian fountain to embrace,
Creeping so far beneath the sea,
Than I will do to enjoy and feast on thee.
Men out of wisdom, women out of pride,
The pleasant thefts of love do hide.
That may secure thee, but thou hast yet from me
A more infallible security;
For there's no danger I should tell
The joys which are to me unspeakable.
From The Academy of Compliments, 1650.
HE that intends to woo a maid
With youthful heat, must shun the shade.
When Flora's gardens are i' th' prime
Let him and her pluck May and Time:[12]
There, where the sun doth shine, birds sing,
Let them two both kiss and fling,
Till summer's fairest carpet spread
Yields them a green and pleasant bed:
If lovers there would strive together,
Chastity would not weigh one feather.
From John Attey's First Book of Airs, 1622.
MY days, my months, my years
I spend about a moment's gain,
A joy that in th' enjoying ends,
A fury quickly slain;