I. Sylvia, methinks you are unfit
Sylvia, methinks you are unfit
For your great Lord’s embrace;
For tho’ we all allow you wit,
We can’t a handsome face.
Then where’s the pleasure, where’s the good
Of spending time and cost?
For if your wit ben’t understood,
Your keeper’s bliss is lost
II. Dorinda’s sparkling wit and eyes
Dorinda’s sparkling wit and eyes,
United, cast too fierce a light,
Which blazes high but quickly dies,
Warms not the heart but hurts the sight.
Love is a calm and tender joy,
Kind are his looks and soft his pace;
Her Cupid is a blackguard boy
That runs his link into your face.
III. Proud with the spoils of royal cully
Proud with the spoils of royal cully,
With false pretence to wit and parts,
She swaggers like a batter’d bully
To try the tempers of men’s hearts.
Tho’ she appears as gay and fine
As jet and gems and paint can make her,
She ne’er shall win a heart like mine —
The devil or Sir Davy take her.
Her bed is like the Scripture feast,
Where none who were invited came,
So disappointed of her guest,
She took up with the blind and lame.
IV. Tell me, Dorinda, why so gay
Tell me, Dorinda, why so gay,
Why such embroid’ry, fringe, and lace?
Can any dresses find a way
To stop th’approaches of decay
And mend thy ruin’d face?
Wilt thou still sparkle in the box,
And ogle in the ring?
Canst thou forget thy age and pox?
Can all that shines on shells and rocks
Make thee a fine young thing?
So have I seen in larder dark
Of veal a lucid loin,
Replete with many a heatless spark,
As wise philosophers remark,
At once both stink and shine.
(Earl of Dorset Charles Sackville)
More Poetry from Earl of Dorset Charles Sackville:
Earl of Dorset Charles Sackville Poems based on Topics: Wit, Sense & Perception, Man, Love, Faces, Anger, Happiness, Devils, Joy & Excitement, Light, Guest- To an Antiquated Coquette (Earl of Dorset Charles Sackville Poems)
- Song Written At Sea, In The First Dutch War (1665), The Night Before An Engagement (Earl of Dorset Charles Sackville Poems)
- A True Account of the Birth and Conception of a Late Famous Poem call'd The Female Nine (Earl of Dorset Charles Sackville Poems)
- To Mr. Edward Howard on His New Utopia (Earl of Dorset Charles Sackville Poems)
- Satire On A Conceited Playwright (Earl of Dorset Charles Sackville Poems)
- To Mr Edward Howard, on his Incomparable (Earl of Dorset Charles Sackville Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, Light Poems, Faces Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Happiness Poems, Anger Poems, Pleasure Poems, Wit Poems, Devils PoemsBased on Keywords: blackguard, philosophers, veal, sylvia, pox, larder, davy, ogle, swaggers, dorinda, cully