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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO THE DUCHESS OF BUCKINGHAM by ABRAHAM COWLEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: IF I SHOULD SAY, THAT IN YOUR FACE WERE SEENE
Last Line: BUT WHAT'S MORE POSSIBLE, T' ENJOY YOU LONG.
IF I should say, that in your face were seene,
Nature's best picture of the Cyprian Queene;
If I should sweare under Minerva's Name,
Poets (who Prophets are) foretold your fame;
The future age would thinke it flatterie,
But to the present, which can witnesse be,
'Twould seeme beneath your high deserts, as farre,
As you above the rest of Women are.
When Mannors' name with Villiers' joyn'd I see,
How doe I reverence your Nobilitie!
But when the vertues of your stocke I view,
(Envi'd in your dead Lord, admir'd in you)
I halfe adore them; for what woman can
Besides your selfe (nay I might say what man)
Both Sexe, and Birth, and Fate, and yeeres excell
In mind, in fame, in worth, in living well?
O how had this begot Idolatrie,
If you had liv'd in the World's infancie,
When man's too much Religion made the best
Or Deities, or Semygods at least?
But we, forbidden this by pietie,
Or, if we were not, by your modestie,
Will make our hearts an Altar, and there pray
Not to, but for you; nor that England may
Enjoy your equall, when you once are gone,
But what's more possible, t' enjoy you long.



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