John Fletcher. Beauty Clear and Fair.

John Fletcher

Beauty Clear and Fair
BEAUTY clear and fair,
            Where the air
Rather like a perfume dwells ;
    Where the violet and the rose
    Their blue veins and blush disclose,
And come to honour nothing else :

            Where to live near
            And planted there
Is to live, and still live new ;
    Where to gain a favour is
    More than light, perpetual bliss—
Make me live by serving you !

Dear, again back recall
            To this light,
A stranger to himself and all!
Both the wonder and the story
Shall be yours, and eke the glory ;
I am your servant, and your thrall.

Source:
The Oxford Book of English Verse.
Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1919. 240.