La Bella Bona Roba. To My Lady H. Ode Poem by Richard Lovelace

La Bella Bona Roba. To My Lady H. Ode

Rating: 2.3


I.
Tell me, ye subtill judges in loves treasury,
Inform me, which hath most inricht mine eye,
This diamonds greatnes, or its clarity?

II.
Ye cloudy spark lights, whose vast multitude
Of fires are harder to be found then view'd,
Waite on this star in her first magnitude.

III.
Calmely or roughly! Ah, she shines too much;
That now I lye (her influence is such),
Chrusht with too strong a hand, or soft a touch.

IV.
Lovers, beware! a certaine, double harme
Waits your proud hopes, her looks al-killing charm
Guarded by her as true victorious arme.

V.
Thus with her eyes brave Tamyris spake dread,
Which when the kings dull breast not entered,
Finding she could not looke, she strook him dead.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Alexander Kindness 17 October 2014

This is NOT the poem entitled La bella bona roba quoted by Al Alvarez in his book The writer's voice. He quotes the first six lines: - I cannot tell who loves the skeleton Of a poor marmoset, naught but bone, bone, Give me a nakedness with her clothes on. Such whose white satin upper coat of skin, Cut upon velvet, rich incarnadin, Hath yet a body and of flesh within... I have never see this poem in its entirety (evidently fifteen lines.)

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