| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | To the Lady May | | By Aurelian Townsend (fl. 1601–1643) |
| | | YOUR 1 smiles are not, as other women’s be, | |
| Only the drawing of the mouth awry; | |
| For breasts and cheeks and forehead we may see, | |
| Parts wanting motion, all stand smiling by: | |
| Heaven hath no mouth, and yet is said to smile | 5 |
| After your style: | |
| No more hath earth, yet that smiles too, | |
| Just as you do. | |
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| No simpering lips nor looks can breed | |
| Such smiles as from your face proceed: | 10 |
| The sun must lend his golden beams, | |
| Soft winds their breath, green trees their shade, | |
| Sweet fields their flowers, clear springs their streams, | |
| Ere such another smile be made: | |
| But these concurring, we may say | 15 |
| ‘So smiles the spring and so smiles lovely May.’ | |
| | | Note 1. First printed by Mr. Bullen in his Speculum Amantis, 1889, from Malone MS. 13, fol. 53. [back] | | |
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