Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.djvu/488

 KATHERINE PHILIPS ('ORINDA')

1631-1664

397. To One persuading a Lady to Marriage

Forbear, bold youth; all's heaven here, And what you do aver To others courtship may appear, 'Tis sacrilege to her. She is a public deity; And were't not very odd She should dispose herself to be A petty household god?

First make the sun in private shine And bid the world adieu, That so he may his beams confine In compliment to you: But if of that you do despair, Think how you did amiss To strive to fix her beams which are More bright and large than his.

JOHN DRYDEN

1631-1700

398. Ode

To the Pious Memory of the accomplished young lady, Mrs. Anne Killigrew, excellent in the two sister arts of Poesy and Painting

Thou youngest virgin-daughter of the skies, Made in the last promotion of the blest; Whose palms, new pluck'd from Paradise, In spreading branches more sublimely rise,