Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO THE HONOURED EUGENIA, COMMANDING ME TO WRITE TO HER, by JOAN PHILIPS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO THE HONOURED EUGENIA, COMMANDING ME TO WRITE TO HER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Fair excellence! Such strange commands you lay
Last Line: Quarrel with them that give you not your due.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ephelia
Subject(s): Heaven; Pride; Soul; Paradise; Self-esteem; Self-respect


Fair Excellence! such strange Commands you lay,
I neither dare Dispute, nor can Obey:
Had I the sweet Orinda's happy Strain,
Yet every Line would Sacriledge contain:
Like to some awful Deity you sit,
At once the Terrour and Delight of Wit:
Your Soul appears in such a charming Dress
As I admire, but never can express:
Heav'n that to others had giv'n sev'ral Graces,
Some noble Souls, some Wit, some lovely Faces:
Finding the World did every one Admire,
Resolv'd to raise their Admiration higher:
And in one Piece, every Perfection croud,
So fram'd your Self, and of it's work grew Proud:
Each Rising Sun saw you more Good, more Fair;
As you alone took up all Heaven's Care:
Such awful Charms do in your Face appear,
As fill Man-kind at once with Love and Fear.
Who hear you Speak, must take your Tongue to be
The first Original of Harmony:
Your Meen hath such a Stately Charming Air,
As without Heralds doth your Birth declare:
Your Soul so Noble, yet from Pride so free,
That 'tis the Pattern of Humility.
Else I had never dar'd to give one Line
To your fair Hand, so Impolite as Mine.
Pardon, dear Madam, these untuned Lays,
That have Prophan'd what I design'd to Praise.
Nor is't possible, but I so must do,
All I can think falls so much short of you:
And Heaven as well with Man might angry be,
For not describing of the Deity,
In its full height of Excellence, as you
Quarrel with them that give you not your Due.





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