dots-menu
×

Home  »  The Book of Restoration Verse  »  Sir George Etherege (1635?–1691)

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.

To a Very Young Lady

Sir George Etherege (1635?–1691)

SWEETEST Bud of Beauty! may

No untimely frost decay

The early glories, which we trace

Blooming in thy matchless face.

But kindly opening, like the rose,

Fresh beauties, every day disclose;

Such as by Nature are not shown

In all the blossoms she has blown:

And then, what conquest shall you make;

Who hearts already daily take!

Scorched, in the morning with thy beams,

How shall we bear those sad extremes

Which must attend thy threatening eyes,

When thou shalt to thy noon arise?