T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Description of Silvestro’s Lady
By Robert Greene (1558–1592)(From Morando, The Tritameron of Love, 1587) |
HER stature like the tall straight cedar-trees | |
| Whose stately bulks do fame th’ Arabian groves; | |
| A pace like princely Juno when she brav’d | |
| The Queen of Love ’fore Paris in the vale; | |
| A front beset with love and courtesy; | 5 |
| A face like modest Pallas when she blush’d | |
| A silly shepherd should be beauty’s judge; | |
| A lip sweet ruby-red, grac’d with delight; | |
| A cheek wherein for interchange of hue | |
| A wrangling strife ’twixt lily and the rose; | 10 |
| Her eyes two twinkling stars in winter-nights | |
| When chilling frost doth clear the azur’d sky; | |
| Her hair of golden hue doth dim the beams | |
| That proud Apollo giveth from his coach; | |
| The Gnidian doves, whose white and snowy pens | 15 |
| Do stain the silver-streaming ivory, | |
| May not compare with those two moving hills | |
| Which, topp’d with pretty teats, discover down a vale | |
| Wherein the God of Love may deign to sleep; | |
| A foot like Thetis when she tripp’d the sands | 20 |
| To steal Neptunus’ favour with her steps; | |
| In fine a piece, despite of beauty, fram’d | |
| To show what Nature’s lineage could afford. | |