Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EPISTLE TO THE LADY ANNE CLIFFORD, by SAMUEL DANIEL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EPISTLE TO THE LADY ANNE CLIFFORD, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Unto the tender youth of those fair eyes
Last Line: Than th' ancestors' fair glory gone before.
Subject(s): Clifford, Anne. Countess Of Pembroke; Eyes; Praise; Silence; Women; Youth


Unto the tender youth of those fair eyes
The light of judgment can arise but new,
And young the world appears t' a young conceit,
Whilst through the unacquainted faculties
The late-invested soul doth rawly view
Those objects which on that discretion wait.
Yet you that such a fair advantage have,
Both by your birth and happy powers, t' outgo
And be before your years, can fairly guess
What hue of life holds surest without stain,
Having your well-wrought heart full furnished so
With all the images of worthiness,
As there is left no room at all t' invest
Figures of other form but sanctity,
Whilst yet those clean-created thoughts within
The garden of your innocencies rest,
Where are no motions of deformity,
Nor any door at all to let them in.
With so great care doth she that hath brought forth
That comely body labor to adorn
That better part, the mansion of your mind,
With all the richest furniture of worth,
To make you'as highly good as highly born,
And set your virtues equal to your kind.
She tells you how that honor only is
A goodly garment put on fair deserts,
Wherein the smallest stain is greatest seen,
And that it cannot grace unworthiness,
But more apparent shows defective parts,
How gay soever they are decked therein.
She tells you too how that it bounded is,
And kept enclosed with so many eyes
As that it cannot stray and break abroad
Into the private ways of carelessness,
Nor ever may descend to vulgarize,
Or be below the sphere of her abode;
But like to those supernal bodies set
Within their orbs, must keep the certain course
Of order, destined to their proper place,
Which only doth their note of glory get;
Th' irregular appearances enforce
A short respect, and perish without grace,
Being meteors, seeming high but yet low placed,
Blazing but while their dying matters last.
Nor can we take the just height of the mind
But by that order which her course doth show,
And which such splendor to her actions gives;
And thereby men her eminency find,
And thereby only do attain to know
The region and the orb wherein she lives.
For low in th' air of gross uncertainty
Confusion only rolls, order sits high.
And therefore, since the dearest thing on earth,
This honor, madam, hath his stately frame
From th' heav'nly order, which begets respect,
And that your nature, virtue, happy birth
Have therein highly interplaced your name,
You may not run the least course of neglect.
For where not to observe is to profane
Your dignity, how careful must you be
To be yourself, and though you may to all
Shine fair aspects, yet must the virtuous gain
The best effects of your benignity;
Nor must your common graces cause to fall
The price of your esteem t' a lower rate
Than doth befit the pitch of your estate.
Nor may you build on your sufficiency,
For in our strongest parts we are but weak;
Nor yet may over-much distrust the same,
Lest that you come to check it so thereby
As silence may become worse than to speak,
Though silence women never ill became,
And none, we see, were ever overthrown
By others' flatt'ry more than by their own.
For though we live amongst the tongues of praise,
And troops of soothing people that collaud
All that we do, yet 'tis within our hearts
Th' ambushment lies, that evermore betrays
Our judgments, when ourselves be come t' applaud
Our own ability, and our own parts.
So that we must not only fence this fort
Of ours against all others' fraud, but most
Against our own, whose danger is the most
Because we lie the nearest to do hurt,
And soon'st deceive ourselves, and soon'st are lost
By our best powers that do us most transport.
Such are your holy bounds, who must convey
(If God so please) the honorable blood
Of Clifford and of Russell, led aright
To many worthy stems, whose offspring may
Look back with comfort to have had that good
To spring from such a branch that grew so'upright;
Since nothing cheers the heart of greatness more
Than th' ancestors' fair glory gone before.





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