Thanks, Joel---that's excellent. I'll pass that passage along to my friend in Scotland upon whose behalf I was asking. 

Perhaps I'll pose my friend's question here: "I'm trying to remember a poem wherein the poet wishes he were a necklace so he could hang between his mistress's cleavage. Tell me I'm not making it up, and better yet tell me what it is!"

Suggestions have thus far included Herrick's "The Vine," Tennyson's "The Miller's Daughter," The Song of Solomon 1:13, the Prince of Wales's yearning to be an item of feminine hygiene, and Bryan Adams's song "I Wanna Be Your Underwear." I wonder whether anyone can think of other examples of this wishing trope.

Sean. 

On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 11:24 AM, Joel Davis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Sorry for the late response and for cross-posting; I can't recall which list had this query. 

In Sidney's Old Arcadia, the initial description of Pamela meets the criteria exactly:

betwixt her breasts, which sweetly rase up like two fair mountainets in the pleasant vale of Tempe, there hanged down a jewel which she had devised as a picture of her own estate. It was a perfect white lamb tied at a stake with a great number of chains, as it had been feared lest the silly creature should do some great harm; neither had she added any word unto it, but even took silence as the word of the poor lamb, showing such humbleness as not to use her own voice for complaint of her misery.

--Robertson edition, 1973, p. 37

Joel B Davis

Professor and Nell Carlton Chair

English Department

Stetson University

421 N Woodland Blvd Unit 8300

DeLand, FL 32723

386.822.7720

http://www.stetson.edu/other/faculty/profiles/joel-davis.php

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Sean Henry, B.A., M.A., PhD.
Lecturer, Department of English
University of Victoria, B.C., Canada
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