UPON JULIA'S UNLACING HERSELF.
by Robert Herrick


TELL if thou canst, and truly, whence doth come
This camphor, storax, spikenard, galbanum ;
These musks, these ambers, and those other smells
(Sweet as the vestry of the oracles).
I'll tell thee :  while my Julia did unlace
Her silken bodice but a breathing space,
The passive air such odour then assum'd,
As when to Jove great Juno goes perfum'd,
Whose pure immortal body doth transmit
A scent that fills both heaven and earth with it.



Titian: Profane Love
Titian. Vanity (aka Profane Love), c1515.


Source:
Herrick, Robert. Works of Robert Herrick. vol I.
Alfred Pollard, ed.
London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1891. 196.


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