| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Art above Nature: To Julia | | By Robert Herrick (1591–1674) |
| | | WHEN I behold a forest spread | |
| With silken trees upon thy head, | |
| And when I see that other dress | |
| Of flowers set in comeliness; | |
| When I behold another grace | 5 |
| In the ascent of curious lace, | |
| Which like a pinnacle doth shew | |
| The top, and the top-gallant too; | |
| Then, when I see thy tresses bound | |
| Into an oval, square, or round, | 10 |
| And knit in knots far more than I | |
| Can tell by tongue, or true-love tie; | |
| Next, when those lawny films I see | |
| Play with a wild civility, | |
| And all those airy silks to flow, | 15 |
| Alluring me, and tempting so: | |
| I must confess mine eye and heart | |
| Dotes less on Nature than on Art. | | | | |
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