"For Vertue in a Woman's Breast / Seldom by Title is possest, / And is no Tenant, but a wand'ring Guest."
— Cotton, Charles (1630-1687)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for Tho. Basset ... Will. Hensman ... Tho. Fox [etc.]
Date
1689
Metaphor
"For Vertue in a Woman's Breast / Seldom by Title is possest, / And is no Tenant, but a wand'ring Guest."
Metaphor in Context
She that is chast, is always fair,
No matter for her Hue,
And though for form she were a Star,
She's ugly, if untrue:
True Beauty alwayes lies within,
Much deeper, than the outer skin,
So deep, that in a Woman's mind,
It will be hard, I doubt, to find;
Or if it be, she's so deriv'd,
And with so many doors contriv'd,
Harder by much to keep it in.
For Vertue in a Woman's Breast
Seldom by Title is possest,
And is no Tenant, but a wand'ring Guest.
No matter for her Hue,
And though for form she were a Star,
She's ugly, if untrue:
True Beauty alwayes lies within,
Much deeper, than the outer skin,
So deep, that in a Woman's mind,
It will be hard, I doubt, to find;
Or if it be, she's so deriv'd,
And with so many doors contriv'd,
Harder by much to keep it in.
For Vertue in a Woman's Breast
Seldom by Title is possest,
And is no Tenant, but a wand'ring Guest.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Date of Entry
12/18/2006
Date of Review
01/12/2012
