Dark Beauty

I found a copy of Speculum Amantis published in 1889, this volume contains rare poems and song from the seventeenth century. This is one of the poems which I thought was beautiful.

BLACK eyes, in your dark orbs doth lie
My ill or happy destiny.
If with clear looks you me behold,
You give me treasures full of gold;
If you dart forth disdainful rays,
To your own dye you turn my days.
That lamp which all the stars doth blind
To modest Cynthia is less kind,
Though you do wear, to make you bright,
No other dress than that of night.
He glitters only in the day;
You in the dark your beams display.
The cunning thief, that lurks for prize,
At some dark corner watching lies ;
So that heart-robbing God doth stand
In those black gems, with shaft in hand,
To rifle me of what I hold
More precious far than Indian gold.
Ye pow'rful necromantic eyes,
Who in your circles strictly pries
Will find that Cupid with his dart
In you doth practise the black art ;
And by those spells I am possest,
Tries his conclusions in my breast.
Though from those objects frowns arise,
Some kind of frowns become black eyes,
As pointed diamonds being set
Cast greater lustre out of jet.
Those pieces we esteem most rare,
Which in night-shadows postured are.
Darkness in churches congregates the sight;
Devotion strays in open daring light.

James Howell