ANONYMOUS

 “The Picture”

The rising front, by grandeur form’d,
The graceful brow serene,
The cheeks, by health and nature warm’d,
The lips of Cypria’s queen.

The more than sweetly dimpled chin,                                     5
The neck of polish high,
The arm of grace, the purple vein,
The lustre-darting eye.

The wavy ringlets of her hair,
In jetty blackness fine,                                                        10
Her skin most exquisitely fair,
Her nose the Aquiline.

The heaving softness of her breast,
Which trembling courts the touch,
I strive to paint,– but here I rest,                                              15
Lest I should paint too much.

NOTES:

1 front “Forehead, face” (OED); grandeur “The quality of being grand or imposing as an object of contemplation; majesty of appearance; sublimity, magnificence” (OED).

4 Cypria’s queen Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love; she came from the island of Cyprus, also known as Cypria during this period.

12 Aquiline “Eagle-like; esp. of the nose or features: Curved like an eagle’s beak, hooked” (OED).

Source: The Gentleman’s Magazine (January 1766), p. 89.

Edited by Rhea Segismundo