Poems on Several Occasions (Broome)/To Belinda, on her Apron embroider'd with Arms and Flowers

by William Broome

 

To Belinda,

On her Apron embroider'd with Arms and Flowers.

 

1.
The list'ning Trees Amphion drew
To dance from Hills, where once they grew;
But you express a Pow'r more great,
The Flow'rs you draw not, but create.

2.
Behold your own Creation rise,
And smile beneath your radiant Eyes!
'Tis beauteous all! and yet receives
From you more Graces than it gives.

3.
But say, amid the softer Charms
Of blooming Flow'rs, what mean these Arms?
So round the Fragrance of the Rose,
The pointed Thorn, to guard it, grows.

4.
But cruel you, who thus employ
Both Arms and Beauty to destroy!
So Venus marches to the Fray
In Armour, formidably gay.

5.
It is a dreadful pleasing Sight!
The Flow'rs attract, the Arms affright;
The Flow'rs with lively Beauty bloom,
The Arms denounce an instant Doom.

6.
Thus when the Britons in array
Their Ensigns to the Sun display,
In the fame Flag are Lillies shown,
And angry Lions sternly frown;
On high the glitt'ring Standard flies,
And conquers all Things—like your Eyes.