To Beauty
“Oh, Mistress Beauty,” said my sigh,
“I’d laugh to scorn all other blisses,
If you and I might live and die
Together on such fare as kisses.
“Your kirtle would not be of silk,
The band around it but torn leather.
I think our wine would be plain milk;
I think we’d oft see stormy weather.
“But, oh, there are some things in life
Worth more to men than fame or money;
And one of them’s a sweet young wife,
So pure, so honest, and so bonnie.”