Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“A sweet disorder in the dress Kindles in clothes a wantonness;”
- Source
- Delight in Disorder
- Date
- 1648
Meaning of “A sweet disorder in the dress Kindles in…”
Herrick finds aesthetic charm in slight irregularity, arguing through the poem’s speaker that carefully imperfect appearance can feel more alive than rigid precision.
Where does it come from?
“Delight in Disorder,” from Hesperides (1648), represented by Project Gutenberg #1211. The poem is a seventeenth-century lyric of attraction and dress; its period language is preserved as aesthetic poetry rather than a modern norm about appearance.