Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/53

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Her flesh as tender chicken’s was;

Her blond locks bright as bowl of brass;

Radiant her brow; of arching due

Her eyebrows; and well spaced the two;

Neither too small, nor yet too great

Her nose, but straight and delicate.

No falcon, I would boldly swear,

Hath eyes that could with hers compare.

Her breath was sweet as breeze, thyme fed;

Her cheeks, commingled white and red;

Her mouth a rosebud, and her chin

Well rounded, with sweet cleft therein.

Her tower-like neck, of measure meet.

The purest lily well might beat

For fairness, free of spot or wem.

’Twixt this and far Jerusalem

I trow were found none other such,

So fair to sight, so soft to touch.

Her bosom would outshine the snow

New-fallen, ere it soil doth show;

And all her body formed and knit

So well, as nought might equal it.

Much doubt I, if since Time had birth,

A fairer dame hath trod dull earth.

A chaplet on her brow was set

Of orfreys; never maiden yet

More lovesome looked, and though my days

I spent to sing her beauty’s praise,

’Twere done but insufficiently.

A graceful silken robe wore she.

And on her head a garland bare

Of roses, which the orfreys fair

VOL I.