The Seventh Decade. Sonnet I. The First Created held a joyous bower

Henry Constable (1562–1613)

THE FIRST Created held a joyous bower,

A flowering field, the world’s sole wonderment,

Hight Paradise; from whence a woman’s power

Enticed him fall to endless banishment.

This on the banks of Euphrates did stand,

Till the first Mover, by His wondrous might,

Planted it in thine eyes! thy face! thy hands!

From whence the world receives his fairest light.

Thy cheeks contains choice flowers; thy eyes, two suns;

Thy hands, the fruit that no life blood can stain;

And in thy breath, that heavenly music wons;

Which, when thou speak’st, angels their voices strain.

As from the first, thy Sex exilèd me!

So to this next, let me be called by thee!