The Hesperides & Noble Numbers/Hesperides/To the Fever, Not to Trouble Julia

The Hesperides & Noble Numbers (1898)
by Robert Herrick, edited by Alfred Pollard
Hesperides
To the Fever, Not to Trouble Julia
2654078The Hesperides & Noble NumbersHesperides
To the Fever, Not to Trouble Julia
1898Robert Herrick

204. TO THE FEVER, NOT TO TROUBLE JULIA.

Thou'st dar'd too far; but, fury, now forbear
To give the least disturbance to her hair:
But less presume to lay a plait upon
Her skin's most smooth and clear expansion.
'Tis like a lawny firmament as yet,
Quite dispossess'd of either fray or fret.
Come thou not near that film so finely spread,
Where no one piece is yet unlevelled.
This if thou dost, woe to thee, fury, woe,
I'll send such frost, such hail, such sleet, and snow,

Such flesh-quakes, palsies, and such fears as shall
Dead thee to th' most, if not destroy thee all.
And thou a thousand thousand times shalt be
More shak'd thyself than she is scorch'd by thee.