NATURE foreeseing how men would devise More wiles than Proteus, women to entice, Granted them two, and those bright-shining eyes, To pierce into men's faults if they were wise; For they with show of virtue mask their vice: Therefore to women's eyes belong these gifts, The one must love, the other see men's shifts. Both these await upon one simple heart, And what they choose, it hides up without change. The emerald will not with his portrait part, Nor will a woman's thoughts delight to range; They hold it bad to have so base exchange: One heart, one friend, though that two eyes do choose him, No more but one, and heart will never lose him. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONSECRATION HYMN by FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL KARMA by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON PUCK AND THE FAIRY, FR. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE A WAYFARING SONG by HENRY VAN DYKE AT THE LAST by RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLACKMORE |