The fairest eye, O eyes in blackness fair!
That ever shined, and the most heavenly face,
The daintiest smiling, the most conquering grace,
And sweetest breath that e'er perfumed the air;
Those cherry lips, whose kiss might well repair
A dead man's state; that speech which did displace
All mean desires, and all affections base,
Clogging swift hope, and winging dead despair;
That snow-white breast, and all those faultless features,
Which made her seem a personage divine,
And far excelling fairest human creatures,
Hath absence banished from my cursed eyne.
But in my heart, as in a mirror clear,
All these perfections to my thoughts appear.