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Home  »  Poetica Erotica  »  “The Night Her Blackest Sable Wore”

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