| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | The Vision | | By Robert Herrick (1591–1674) |
| | (Songs from Hesperides, 1648)
SITTING alone, as one forsook, | |
| Close by a silver-shedding brook, | |
| With hands held up to Love, I wept; | |
| And after sorrows spent I slept; | |
| Then in a vision I did see | 5 |
| A glorious form appear to me: | |
| A virgin’s face she had; her dress | |
| Was like a sprightly Spartaness. | |
| A silver bow, with green silk strung, | |
| Down from her comely shoulders hung: | 10 |
| And as she stood, the wanton air | |
| Dandled the ringlets of her hair. | |
| Her legs were such Diana shows | |
| When, tucked up, she a-hunting goes; | |
| With buskins shortened to descry | 15 |
| The happy dawning of her thigh: | |
| Which when I saw, I made access | |
| To kiss that tempting nakedness: | |
| But she forbad me with a wand | |
| Of myrtle she had in her hand: | 20 |
| And, chiding me, said: Hence, remove, | |
| Herrick, thou art too coarse to love. | | | | |
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