Pastorals Epistles Odes (1748)/To the Honourable Miss Carteret

by Ambrose Philips

 

To the Honourable

MISS CARTERET.

LOOM of beauty, early flow'r
Of the blissful bridal bow'r,
Thou, thy parents pride and care,
Fairest offspring of the fair, 4
Lovely pledge of mutual love,
Angel seeming from above,
Was it not thou day by day
Dost thy very sex betray, 8
Female more and more appear,
Female, more than angel dear,
How to speak thy face and mien,
(Soon too dangerous to be seen) 12
How shall I, or shall the muse,
Language of resemblance chuse?
Language like thy mien and face,
Full of sweetness, full of grace! 16

 By the next-returning spring,
When again the linnets sing,
When again the lambkins play,
Pretty sportlings full of May, 20
When the meadows next are seen,
Sweet enamel! white and green,
And the year, in fresh attire,
Welcomes every gay desire, 24
Blooming on shalt thou appear
More inviting than the year,
Fairer sight than orchard shows,
Which beside a river blows: 28
Yet, another spring I see,
And a brighter bloom in thee:
And another round of time,
Circling, still improves thy prime: 32
And, beneath the vernal skies,
Yet a verdure more shall rise,
'E're thy beauties, kindling slow,
In each finish'd feature glow, 36
'E're, in smiles and in disdain,
Thou exert thy maiden reign,
Absolute to save, or kill,
Fond beholders, at thy will. 40

 Then the taper-moulded waste
With a span of ribbon braced,
And the swell of either breast,
And the wide high vaulted chest, 44
And the neck so white and round,
Little neck with brilliants bound,
And the store of charms which shine
Above, in lineaments divine, 48
Crowded in a narrow space
To compleat the desp'rate face,
These alluring powers, and more,
Shall enamour'd youths adore; 52
These, and more, in courtly lays,
Many an aking heart shall praise.

 Happy thrice, and thrice agen,
Happyest he of happy men, 56
Who, in courtship greatly sped,
Wins the damsel to his bed,
Bears the virgin-prize away,
Counting life one nuptial day! 60
For the dark-brown dusk of hair,
Shadowing thick thy forehead fair,
Down the veiny temples growing,
O'er the sloping shoulders flowing, 64
And the smoothly-pencil'd brow,
Mild to him in every vow,
And the fringed lid below,
Thin as thinnest blossoms blow, 68
And the hazely-lucid eye,
Whence heart winning glances fly,
And that cheek of health, o'erspred
With soft-blended white and red, 72
And the witching smiles which break
Round those lips, which sweetly speak,
And thy gentleness of mind,
Gentle from a gentle kind, 76
These endowments, heav'nly dow'r!
Brought him in the promis'd hour,
Shall for ever bind him to thee,
Shall renew him still to woo thee. 80