The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare
page 18 of 74 (24%)
page 18 of 74 (24%)
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In his clear bed might have reposed still:
But they must ope, this blessed league to kill; And holy-thoughted Lucrece to their sight Must sell her joy, her life, her world's delight. Her lily hand her rosy cheek lies under, Cozening the pillow of a lawful kiss; Who, therefore angry, seems to part in sunder, Swelling on either side to want his bliss; Between whose hills her head entombed is: Where, like a virtuous monument, she lies, To be admir'd of lewd unhallow'd eyes. Without the bed her other fair hand was, On the green coverlet; whose perfect white Show'd like an April daisy on the grass, With pearly sweat, resembling dew of night, Her eyes, like marigolds, had sheath'd their light, And canopied in darkness sweetly lay, Till they might open to adorn the day. Her hair, like golden threads, play'd with her breath; O modest wantons! wanton modesty! Showing life's triumph in the map of death, And death's dim look in life's mortality: Each in her sleep themselves so beautify, As if between them twain there were no strife, But that life liv'd in death, and death in life. Her breasts, like ivory globes circled with blue, |
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