Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO HER HAIR, by EDWARD HERBERT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO HER HAIR, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Black beamy hairs, which so seem to arise
Last Line: With the sunbeams below.
Alternate Author Name(s): Cherbury, 1st Baron Herbert Of; Herbert Of Cherbury, Edward Herbert, 1st Baron; Herbert Of Cherbury, Lord
Subject(s): Hair


BLACK beamy hairs, which so seem to arise
From the extraction of those eyes,
That into you she destine-like doth spin
The beams she spares, what time her soul retires,
And by those hallow'd fires
Keeps house all night within;

Since from within her awful front you shine
As threads of life which she doth twine,
And thence ascending with your fatal rays,

Do crown those temples where love's wonders wrought
We afterwards see brought
To vulgar light and praise;

Lighten through all your regions, till we find
The causes why we are grown blind,
That when we should your glories comprehend,
Our sight recoils and turneth back again,
And doth, as 'twere in vain,
Itself to you extend.

Is it because past black there is not found
A fix'd or horizontal bound,
And so, as it doth terminate the white,
It may be said all colours to enfold,
And in that kind to hold
Somewhat of infinite?

Or is it that the centre of our sight
Being veiled in its proper night
Discerns your blackness by some other sense
Than that by which it doth pi'd colours see,
Which only therefore be
Known by their difference?

Tell us, when on her front in curls you lie,
So diap'red from that black eye
That your reflected forms may make us know
That shining light in darkness all would find,
Were they not upward blind
With the sunbeams below.





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