Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MENAPHON: MELICERTUS' DESCRIPTION OF HIS MISTRESS, by ROBERT GREENE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MENAPHON: MELICERTUS' DESCRIPTION OF HIS MISTRESS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tune on, my pipe, the praises of my love
Last Line: A sky-born form so beautiful as she.
Subject(s): Beauty; Man-woman Relationships; Women; Male-female Relations


TUNE on, my pipe, the praises of my love,
And, midst thy oaten harmony, recount
How fair she is that makes thy music mount,
And every string of thy heart's harp to move.

Shall I compare her form unto the sphere
Whence sun-bright Venus vaunts her silver shine?
Ah, more than that by just compare is thine,
Whose crystal looks the cloudy heavens do clear!

How oft have I descending Titan seen
His burning locks couch in the sea-queen's lap,
And beauteous Thetis his red body wrap
In watery robes, as he her lord had been!

Whenas my nymph, impatient of the night,
Bade bright Astræus with his train give place,
Whiles she led forth the day with her fair face,
And lent each star a more than Delian light.

Not Jove or Nature, should they both agree
To make a woman of the firmament,
Of his mix'd purity could not invent
A sky-born form so beautiful as she.





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