Philips. To One persuading a Lady to Marriage.

Katherine Philips

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.

Source:
The Oxford Book of English Verse.
Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1919. 462.

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