Venus and Adonis (Modern)
Peer Reviewed
¶Till breathless he disjoined and backward drew
¶The heavenly moisture, that sweet coral mouth,
¶Whose precious taste her thirsty lips well knew,
¶Whereon they surfeit, yet complain on drought.
545_He with her plenty pressed, she faint with dearth,
¶_Their lips together glued, fall to the earth.
¶Now quick desire hath caught the yielding prey,
¶And glutton-like she feeds, yet never filleth.
¶Her lips are conquerors, his lips obey,
550Paying what ransom the insulter willeth,
¶_Whose vulture thought doth pitch the price so high
¶_That she will draw his lips' rich treasure dry.
¶And having felt the sweetness of the spoil,
¶With blindfold fury she begins to forage.
555Her face doth reek and smoke, her blood doth boil,
¶And careless lust stirs up a desperate courage,
¶_Planting oblivion, beating reason back,
¶_Forgetting shame's pure blush and honor's wrack.
¶Hot, faint, and weary, with her hard embracing,
560Like a wild bird being tamed with too much handling,
¶Or as the fleet-foot roe that's tired with chasing,
¶Or like the froward infant stilled with dandling,
¶_He now obeys, and now no more resisteth,
¶_While she takes all she can, not all she listeth.
565What wax so frozen but dissolves with temp'ring
¶And yields at last to every light impression?
¶Things out of hope are compassed oft with vent'ring,
¶Chiefly in love, whose leave exceeds commission.
¶_Affection faints not like a pale-faced coward
570_But then woos best when most his choice is froward.