A Praise of His Lady

By John Heywood

16th Century

GIVE place, you ladies, and begone!
         Boast not yourselves at all!
For here at hand approacheth one
         Whose face will stain you all.

The virtue of her lively looks
         Excels the precious stone;
I wish to have none other books
         To read or look upon.

In each of her two crystal eyes
         Smileth a naked boy;
It would you all in heart suffice
         To see that lamp of joy.

I think Nature hath lost the mould
         Where she her shape did take;
Or else I doubt if Nature could
         So fair a creature make.

She may be well compared
         Unto the Phoenix kind,
Whose like was never seen or heard,
         That any man can find.

In life she is Diana chaste,
         In troth Penelopey;
In word and eke in deed steadfast.
         --What will you more we say?

If all the world were sought so far,
         Who could find such a wight?
Her beauty twinkleth like a star
         Within the frosty night.

Her rosial colour comes and goes
         With such a comely grace,
More ruddier, too, than doth the rose,
         Within her lively face.

At Bacchus' feast none shall her meet,
         Ne at no wanton play,
Nor gazing in an open street,
         Nor gadding as a stray.

The modest mirth that she doth use
         Is mix'd with shamefastness;
All vice she doth wholly refuse,
         And hateth idleness.

O Lord! it is a world to see
         How virtue can repair,
And deck in her such honesty,
         Whom Nature made so fair.

Truly she doth so far exceed
         Our women nowadays,
As doth the jeliflower a weed;
         And more a thousand ways.

How might I do to get a graff
         Of this unspotted tree?
--For all the rest are plain but chaff,
         Which seem good corn to be.

This gift alone I shall her give;
         When death doth what he can,
Her honest fame shall ever live
         Within the mouth of man.

DayPoems Poem No. 56
<a href="http://www.daypoems.net/poems/56.html">A Praise of His Lady by John Heywood</a>

The DayPoems Poetry Collection, www.daypoems.net
Timothy Bovee, editor

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