I Dare Not COMPARE

I shall not compare your golden cascading tresses

     With the meandering mountain brooks

          Nor with fruit-laden boughs in woods;

I shall not compare your piercing elegant eyes

     With peerless pearls in seas

 Nor with snow-white doves fluttering in even breeze;

I shall not compare your impeccably fair visage

     With the magnificent moon

Nor with soothing showers of July and June;

I shall not compare your seraphic smiles

     With coalesced petals into a chaste corolla

Nor with the finest wine relished at the royal gala;

I shall not compare your soft scarlet lips in sheen

     With the sparkling shooting stars

Nor with the flight and might of Avatars;

I shall not compare your tender bosoms

     With silky spring buds

Nor with the bubbly soft soapsuds;

I shall not compare the smooth velvety touch of your hands

     With splendid snow flakes

Nor with the blue pacific lakes;

I shall not compare your solicitous warmth

     With hearths in every hamlet

Nor with men who warm coy mistresses by their sylvan serenade;

I shall not compare you

     With the heavenly beings

Nor with the daughters of imperial kings;

You glide beyond the dale of comparison

     And thus, truly beyond compare

I dare not compare!