The Golden Gift That Nature Did Thee Give

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

© Henry Howard