| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | Upon Combing Her Hair | | By Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583–1648) |
| | | BREAKING from under that thy cloudy veil, | |
| Open and shine yet more, shine out more clear, | |
| Thou glorious, golden-beam-darting hair, | |
| Even till my wonder-stricken senses fail. | |
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| Shoot out in light, and shine those rays on far, | 5 |
| Thou much more fair than is the Queen of Love | |
| When she doth comb her in her sphere above, | |
| And from a planet turns a blazing star. | |
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| Nay, thou art greater too! More destiny | |
| Depends on thee, than on her influence; | 10 |
| No hair thy fatal hand doth now dispence | |
| But to some one a thread of life must be. | |
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| While gracious unto me, thou both dost sunder | |
| Those glories which, if they united were, | |
| Might have amazèd sense, and shew’st each hair | 15 |
| Which, if alone, had been too great a wonder. | |
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| But stay! methinks new beauties do arise | |
| While she withdraws these glories which were spread; | |
| Wonder of beauties! set thy radiant head, | |
| And strike out day from thy yet fairer eyes. | 20 | | | |
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