Lyric Poem · Love

Song from The Silent Woman

by Ben Jonson

Reading room

1Still to be neat, still to be dressed,

2As you were going to a feast;

3Still to be powdered, still perfumed:

4Lady, it is to be presumed,

5Though art's hid causes are not found,

6All is not sweet, all is not sound.

7Give me a look, give me a face,

8That makes simplicity a grace;

9Robes loosely flowing, hair as free;

10Such sweet neglect more taketh me

11Than all th' adulteries of art:

12They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.

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“Song from The Silent Woman” by Ben Jonson — quilloak.com/poems/song-from-the-silent-woman

Quick facts

Poem: Song from The Silent Woman
Poet: Ben Jonson
Length: 12 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Love

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 12 lines · 2 sestets
Line length: Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Ben Jonson1572–1637
Source record: PoetryDBSong from The Silent Woman by ben-jonson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 022a9a75101f5544…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Love

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