Tixall Poetry/Eyes and Lips. The Second Duell
Eyes and Lips.
The Second Duell.
Eyes.Let idle, prating lovers seekeThere fortunes in lip-rhetorick;He study loves astroligyeI' th' doble sphere of beutyes eye.Lips.Let idle, gasing lovers spyThere fates i' th' sphere of ether eye;He reade loves sunshine or eclipsIn beutys markd and naked lips.E.I hope to Venus none denyBut that, in loves astronomy,The eyes aford the best aspect;And what would lovers more afect? L.I hope to Cupid none will proveBut that, i' th' moving orbs of love,The lips make best conjunction;And what would lovers wish but union?E.If lips are all the mouth can say,The eyes have lips as well as they,Which heare are onely lips to coverThe pearly treasures of a lover.L.If pearles are all the eye can show,The lips have each a perfect row,Which, not to ope to vulger sights,Are closd in corail cabinets.E.Each rurall lover knows the priceOf corail lips cheape marchandise;But who can prise loves diomond dart,Is surely master of his art.L.Each country-lass a ring may get,And wear a braselet too of geat;But loves quene onely gets the gem,And beares the ruby diadem.E.Ah! what are gemes' or jewells' light,Compard to starres' or planets' sight? Pore ruby lips would melt to spyThe doble sunns of ether eye.L.They're falling starres and wandring spheres,That, comet-like, disolve to teares;Pore Sol himself must have eclips,If but in sight of Daphnes lips.E.The eyes are heavinly twins, that moveAnd guide us in the sea of love;The double phare, whose welcome sightReveales the port of wishd delight.L.Then eyes are onely flames, that showUnto loves haven how to goe;But what availes the biasing eye,If lips there harbour first denye?E.The eyes are loves familiers,The intelligences of his spheres,And can, twixt distant frend and frend,Love characters and leters send.L.They but his leter patents are,Where vulgerd eyes' brode seales apeare;But thers a deeper secret int,Where lips theire privy seales imprint. E.Eyes nature framd cleare, sownd, and even,As pictures copied out of heavin,With whose agilitye and lightWe tast the glorifieing sight.L.Light nature taught and levityeTo th' eyes, that they the lips might see;Had eyes bin such a paradise,She'de taught the lips to se the eyes.E.Blind lips have but one propertye,When eyes can fele as well as see;There nature nigardly dispensesHer single, here her double senses.L.Dumbe eyes, that see all others blis,Are blind to their owne hapines,And still there muteal objects smother,Where lips can fele and kis each other.E.The eyes are guides that still conveyLoves pilgrims on there nerest way,Lest in a woode of rivalls frighted,They loose themselves, and be benighted.L.Such subtill guids turne jelous spyes,For Argus had a hundred eyes; But Cupids blind, and scorning sight,Can find his way as well by night.E.If spies they bee, they may discoverLoves seasons to a woing lover;But they by night are torches too,That lead to finde as well as wooe.L.Love's nere the nearer to be ledTo Venus' lodge without a bed;And on what pillow can he sleep,But the soft roses of her lip?E.Eyes windowes are, where loves deare paineFlys in, and steales into the braine,Where he the pleasing torment breeds,And with his bitter sweetnesse feeds.L.Lypps are the dores, where loves sharp foodGetts in to fill, and spill the blood;And through the veines convayes the hartHis killing and his curing smart.E.Tis fleshly love that feeds the tast;Sight's purer food are spirits chast;I' th' turtle's eye no venom is,Though serpents poyson with a kisse. L.Tis meare phantastick lovers fare,To gape at spirits, feed on aire:I' th' turtles kisse no poyson lyes,Though basilisks can kill with eyes.E.Loves eyes must surfet, sure, if fedUpon no couler else but red;Here joyne all objects of the vew,Both black, and gray, and whit, and blew.L.Love starves with too much apitite,That has no fatter food then sight;I' th' lip how all his beautys meet,Both full and faire, and soft and sweet.E.Though jealous mist of darkenesse coversAnd shutts the rosy harts of lovers,Of orient eyes one open rayAgain displays them to the day.L.Though frost of coynesse make debateTwixt Thirses' love and Phillis' state,Of melting lipps one gentle kisseRestores the shepard to his blisse.E.As daysys red, in open feeld,For sweetnesse to the violet yeeld, So, in the soile of beauty's face,The eye must of the lip take place;Eyes that are Venus plotts of pansies,Where lovers sett and gather fancies.L.As drooping pansies hang the head,If pinkes apeare on Venus bed,So th' violet eye still droopes and trippsBefore the tulipps of too lipps;Lipps that are budds and beds of roses,Where kisses sow and gather posies.