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A Request To the Graces

by Robert Herrick, 1648

Ponder my words, if so that any be
Known guilty here of incivility:
Let what is graceless, discompos’d, and rude,
With sweetness, smoothness, softness, be endu’d.
Teach it to blush, to curtsy, lisp, and show
Demure, but yet full of temptation, too.
Numbers ne’er tickle, or but lightly please,

Unless they have some wanton carriages.

This if ye do, each piece will here be good,
And graceful made by your neat sisterhood.

Published in Hesperides
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