To Lady Carteret

Of all inhabitants on earth,To man alone I owe my birth,And yet the cow, the sheep, the bee,Are all my parents more than he:I, a virtue, strange and rare,Make the fairest look more fair,And myself, which yet is rarer,Growing old, grow still the fairer.Like sots, alone I'm dull enough,When dosed with smoke, and smear'd with snuff;But, in the midst of mirth and wine,I with double lustre shine.Emblem of the Fair am I,Polish'd neck, and radiant eye;In my eye my greatest grace,Emblem of the Cyclops' race;Metals I like them subdue,Slave like them to Vulcan too;Emblem of a monarch old,Wise, and glorious to behold;Wasted he appears, and pale,Watching for the public weal:Emblem of the bashful dame,That in secret feeds her flame,Often aiding to impartAll the secrets of her heart;Various is my bulk and hue,Big like Bess, and small like Sue:Now brown and burnish'd like a nut,At other times a very slut;Often fair, and soft, and tender,Taper, tall, and smooth, and slender:Like Flora, deck'd with various flowers,Like Phoebus, guardian of the hours:But whatever be my dress,Greater be my size or less,Swelling be my shape or small,Like thyself I shine in all.Clouded if my face is seen,My complexion wan and green,Languid like a love-sick maid,Steel affords me present aid.Soon or late, my date is done,As my thread of life is spun;Yet to cut the fatal threadOft revives my drooping head;Yet I perish in my prime,Seldom by the death of time;Die like lovers as they gaze,Die for those I live to please;Pine unpitied to my urn,Nor warm the fair for whom I burn:Unpitied, unlamented too,Die like all that look on you.