DELIGHT IN DISORDER. BY ROBERT HERRICK.
Reading edition
It is in such poems as the following one that Herrick is at his best; his religious, or, as he called them, his “noble numbers,” being for the most part inferior. But in his lyrics, as Austin Dobson says, his “numbers are of gold.”
A sweet disorder in the dress Kindles in clothes a wantonness; A lawn about the shoulders thrown, Into a fine distraction; An erring lace, which here and there Enthralls the crimson stomacher; A cuff neglected, and thereby Ribbands to flow confusedly; A winning wave, deserving note, In the tempestuous petticoat; A careless shoestring, in whose tie I see a wild civility; Doth more bewitch me than when art Is too precise in every part.