Venus and Adonis (Modern)
Peer Reviewed
¶"What canst thou talk?" quoth she. "Hast thou a tongue?
¶O, would thou hadst not, or I had no hearing.
¶Thy mermaid's voice hath done me double wrong.
430I had my load before, now pressed with bearing,
¶_Melodious discord, heavenly tune harsh sounding,
¶_Ears' deep sweet music, and heart's deep sore wounding.
¶"Had I no eyes but ears, my ears would love
¶That inward beauty and invisible;
435Or were I deaf, thy outward parts would move
¶Each part in me that were but sensible.
¶_Though neither eyes nor ears, to hear nor see,
¶_Yet should I be in love by touching thee.
¶"Say that the sense of feeling were bereft me,
440And that I could not see, nor hear, nor touch,
¶And nothing but the very smell were left me,
¶Yet would my love to thee be still as much;
¶_For from the stillitory of thy face excelling
¶_Comes breath perfumed that breedeth love by smelling.
