The heavens such grace did lend him
That he might admired be.
Examples might be adduced from many poets, but two more will suffice. A female Tennyson might have begun a song in the following terms:—
It is the youthful miller,
And he is grown so dear, so dear,
That I would be the pencil
That trembles on his ear:
For 'midst his curls by day and night
I'd touch his neck so warm and white.
Finally, let us look at the very prince of love poets—Robbie Burns. Two of his most famous songs might as well have been written of swains as maidens. Here is one in which in the most natural way in the world lassie becomes laddie, and Mary, Harry:—