For this reading I am going to read two poems the first is typical of the period and the second for comparison is by Shakespeare.

I will pass no judgment but let you decide which you prefer.

My ladies hair

By Bartholomew Griffin. Published 1596 

My Lady's hair is threads of beaten gold;

  Her front the purest crystal eye hath seen;

Her eyes the brightest stars the heavens hold;

  Her cheeks, red roses, such as seld have been;

Her pretty lips of red vermilion dye;

  Her hand of ivory the purest white;

Her blush AURORA, or the morning sky.

  Her breast displays two silver fountains bright;

The spheres, her voice; her grace, the Graces three;   

  Her body is the saint that I adore;

Her smiles and favours, sweet as honey be.

  Her feet, fair THETIS praiseth evermore.

But Ah, the worst and last is yet behind :

For of a griffon she doth bear the mind!

Sonnet 130 - My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

William Shakespeare

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red, than her lips red:

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound:

I grant I never saw a goddess go,

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

   And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,

   As any she belied with false compare.