Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham

On My Lady Dorothy Sidney’s Picture

Such was Philoclea, and such Dorus’ flame!
The matchless Sidney, that immortal frame
Of perfect beauty on two pillars placed,
Not his high fancy could one pattern, graced
With such extremes of excellence, compose;
Wonders so distant in one face disclose!
Such cheerful modesty, such humble state,
Moves certain love, but with as doubtful fate
As when, beyond our greedy reach, we see 9
Inviting fruit on too sublime a tree.
All the rich flowers through his Arcadia found,
Amazed we see in this one garland bound.
Had but this copy (which the artist took
From the fair picture of that noble book)
Stood at Kalander’s, the brave friends had jarr’d,
And, rivals made, th’ensuing story marr’d.
Just nature, first instructed by his thought,
In his own house thus practised what he taught;
This glorious piece transcends what he could think,
So much his blood is nobler than his ink![2]

[1] ‘Dorothy Sidney’: see Life for an account of ‘Saccharissa.’ [2] ‘Philoclea and Dorus’: the reader may turn for these names and their histories, to the glorious, flowery wilderness of the ‘Arcadia.’ Sidney was granduncle to Dorothy.