Fair Excellence! such strange Commands you lay,
I neither dare Dispute, nor can Obey:
Had I the sweet
Orinda's
(1) happy Strain,
Yet every Line would Sacrilege contain:
Like to some awful Deity you sit,
At once the Terror and Delight of Wit:
Your Soul appears in such a charming Dress
As I admire, but never can express:
Heaven that to others had giv'n several Graces,
Some noble Souls, some Wit, some lovely Faces:
Finding the World did every one Admire,
Resolved to raise their Admiration higher:
And in one Piece, every perfection crowd,
So framed your Self, and of its work grew Proud:
Each Rising Sun saw you more Good, more Fair;
As you alone took up all Heaven's Care:
Such awful(2) Charms do in your Face appear,
As fill Mankind at once with Love and Fear.
Who hear you Speak, must take your Tongue to be
The first Original of Harmony:
Your Mien hath such a Stately Charming Air,
As without Heralds doth your Birth declare:
Your Soul so Noble, yet from Pride so free,
That 'tis the Pattern of Humility.
Else I had never dared to give one Line
To your fair Hand, so Impolite as Mine.
Pardon, dear Madam, these untuned Lays,
That have Profaned what I designed to Praise.
Nor is't possible, but I so must do,
All I can think falls so much short of you:
And Heaven as well with Man might angry be
For not describing of the Deity,
In its full height of Excellence, as you
Quarrel with them that give you not your Due.