Classic Poem

Painter, by unmatch'd desert
Master of the Rhodian art,
Come, my absent Mistresse take
As I shall describe her; make
First her hair, as black as bright,
And if colours so much right
Can but do her, let it too
Smell of Aromatick dew;
Underneath this Shade, must thou
Draw her Alabaster Brow;
Her dark Eye-brows so dispose
That they neither part nor close,
But by a divorce so slight
Be disjoyn'd, may cheat the sight:
From her kindly killing Eye
Make a flash of lightning flye,
Sparkling like Minerva 's, yet
Like Cythera 's mildly sweet:
Roses in milk swimming seek
For the pattern of her Cheek:
In her lip such moving blisses
As from all may challenge kisses;
Round about her neck (outvying
Parian stone) the Graces flying;
And o're all her Limbs at last
A loose purple mantle cast,
But so ordered, that the eye
Some part naked may descry,
An Essay by which the rest
That lies hidden may be ghest.
So; to life th'hast come so neer,
All of her, but voice, is here.