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Home  »  English Poetry I  »  211. A Sweet Disorder

English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Robert Herrick

211. A Sweet Disorder

A SWEET disorder in the dress

Kindles in clothes a wantonness:—

A lawn about the shoulders thrown

Into a fine distractión,—

An erring lace, which here and there

Enthrals the crimson stomacher,—

A cuff neglectful, and thereby

Ribbands to flow confusedly,—

A winning wave, deserving note,

In the tempestuous petticoat,—

A careless shoe-string, in whose tie

I see a wild civility,—

Do more bewitch me, than when art

Is too precise in every part.