Whose cheek is this? 1
What rosy face
Has lost a blush today?
I found her－"pleiad"－in the woods
And bore her safe away.
Robins, in the tradition 6
Did cover such with leaves,
But which the cheek－
And which the pall
My scrutiny deceives.
What rosy face
Has lost a blush today?
I found her－"pleiad"－in the woods
And bore her safe away.
Robins, in the tradition 6
Did cover such with leaves,
But which the cheek－
And which the pall
My scrutiny deceives.
(F.48/J.82)
[1–10]:: This poem is about Perdita in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.
[1–3] cheek, rosy, lost a blush:: a maid in trouble.
[4] her "pleiad":: a hint on Perdita. Merope, one of the Pleiads unlike her other six sisters, married a mortal and faded away.
[5] safe away:: Perdita was deserted by Antigonus and saved by a shepherd.
[6] Robins:: common people, the shepherd and clown.
[9] pall:: Perdita was covered by a bearing-cloth, with some gold inside.
[10] scrutiny deceives:: the gold inside the cloth allowed the shepherd to raise her.
SHEPHERD: Look thee, a bearing-cloth for a Squire's child: look thee here, take up, take up (Boy:) open it: so, let's see, it was told me I should be rich by the Fairies. ─ The Winter's Tale (1623)
They were placed in the heavens after death, where they formed a constellation called Pleiades, near the back of the bull in the Zodiac. Their names were Alcyone, Merope, Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Sterope, and Celeno. They all, except Merope, who married Sisyphus, king of Corinth, had some of the immortal gods for their suitors. On that account, therefore, Merope's star is dime and obscure among the rest of her sisters, because she married a mortal. ─ A Classical Dictionary (1820)