Thomas D'Urfey (1653-1723). The Night Her Blackest Sable Wore. T.R. Smith, ed. 1921-22. Poetica Erotica: A Collection of Rare and Curious Amatory Verse

Verse > Anthologies > T. R. Smith, ed. > Poetica Erotica: A Collection of Rare and Curious Amatory Verse

CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

“The Night Her Blackest Sable Wore”

By Thomas D’Urfey (1653–1723)

(c. 1682; attributed; Pills to Purge Melancholy (1707), i. 202; and also to Semple of Beltrees; see Roxburgh Ballads [Ballad Soc. Rept.], i. 197.)

THE NIGHT her blackest Sable wore,
And gloomy were the Skies;
And glitt’ring Stars there were no more,
Than those in Stella’s Eyes;
When at her Father’s Gate I knocked,	5
Where I had often been,
And shrouded only with her Smock,
The Fair one let me in.

Fast locked within her close Embrace,
She trembling lay ashamed;	10
Her swelling Breasts, and glowing Face,
And every touch enflamed:
My eager Passion I obeyed,
Resolved the Fort to win;
And her fond Heart was soon betrayed,	15
To yield and let me in.

Then! then! beyond expressing,
Immortal was the Joy;
I knew no greater blessing,
So great a god was I;	20
And she transported with delight,
Oft prayed me come again;
And kindly vowed that every Night,
She’d rise and let me in.

But, oh! at last she proved with Bern,	25
And sighing sat and dull;
And I, who had as much concern,
Looked then just like a Fool:
Her lovely Eyes with tears run down,
Repenting her rash Sin;	30
She sighed and cursed the fatal hour,
That e’er she let me in.

But who could cruelly deceive,
Of from such Beauty part?
I loved her so, I could not leave	35
The Charmer of my Heart:
But Wedded and concealed the Crime,
Thus all was well again;
And now she thanks the blessed time,
That e’er she let me in.	40

CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Click here to shop the Bartleby Bookstore.

Shakespeare · Bible · Saints · Anatomy · Harvard Classics · Lit. History · Quotations · Poetry