VENUS AND ADONIS
EVEN as the sun with purple-colour\'d face Had ta\'en his last leave of
the weeping morn, Rose-cheek\'d Adonis tried him to the chase; Hunting
he lov\'d, but love he laugh\'d to scorn;
Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him, And like a bold-fac\'d
suitor \'gins to woo him.
\'Thrice fairer than myself,\' thus she began, \'The field\'s chief flower,
sweet above compare,
Stain to all nymphs, more lovely than a man, More white and red
than doves or roses are; Nature that made thee, with herself at strife, Saith
that the world hath ending with thy life.
\'Vouchsafe, thou wonder, to alight thy steed, And rein his proud head
to the saddle-bow; If thou wilt deign this favour, for thy meed A thousand
honey secrets shalt thou know:
Here come and sit, where never serpent hisses; And being set, I\'ll
smother thee with kisses:
\'And yet not cloy thy lips with loath\'d satiety, But rather famish them
amid their plenty,
Making them red and pale with fresh variety; Ten kisses short as one,
one long as twenty: A summer\'s day will seem an hour but short, Being
wasted in such time-beguiling sport.\'
With this she seizeth on his sweating palm, The precedent of pith and
livelihood, And, trembling in her passion, calls it balm, Earth\'s sovereign
salve to do a goddess good:
Being so enrag\'d, desire doth lend her force Courageously to pluck
him from his horse.
Over one arm the lusty courser\'s rein Under her other was the tender
boy