The golden gift that Nature did thee give <br />To fasten friends and feed them at thy will <br />With form and favour, taught me to believe <br />How thou art made to show her greatest skill, <br />Whose hidden virtues are not so unknown <br />But lively dooms might gather at the first: <br />Where beauty so her perfect seed hath sown <br />Of other graces follow needs there must. <br />Now certes, lady, since all this is true, <br />That from above thy gifts are thus elect, <br />Do not deface them then with fancies new, <br />Nor change of minds let not thy mind infect, <br />But mercy him, thy friend, that doth thee serve, <br />Who seeks alway thine honour to preserve.<br /><br />Henry Howard<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-golden-gift-that-nature-did-thee-give/
