There is a Garden in her face: deciphered

Thomas Campion's "There is a Garden in her face" is a Petrarchan conceit, extolling the beauty and chastity of a virtuous fruit seller. Using floral imagery, the woman, whom we will call "Cherry" for future reference, is described to be bountifully beautiful. The most prominent characteristic of her face are her lips, metaphorically protrayed as cherries, plump and red. Campion's ideal woman starkly contrasts the promiscuous women of his day and it is with this contrast that he critiques the state of society in his time.

The "Garden" (Campion, 1) is a direct reference to the Garden of Eden, and by using it to represent Cherry's face, Campion is suggesting two things: that she is a creature of God, and, as such, a pure and innocent being. Cherry's face is explicitly referred to as "a heav'nly paradice [...]/ Wherein all pleasant fruits doe flow" (3, 4), a common description of Eden. "Her eyes like Angels" (13) stand on guard with "bended bowes" (14). Following the Fall of Man, God placed a cherub and a flaming sword to guard the only entrance into Eden. Cherubim, plural for cherub, are also seen guarding other important things, such as the lid of the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple of Solomon. As such, they are not cute little angels to be trifled with. Biblical imagery encompasses this poem and its moral values are, to a certain extent, represented by the character of Cherry.

The cherries in the poem are used to describe her plump, red lips, as the focal component of the conceit. They "fayrely do enclose/ Of Orient Pearle a double row" (7-8), beautiful pearly teeth. While overtly referring to the lips of her mouth, the embedded metaphor in "Cherries" (7) also refers to another pair of lips. The treasure trove of "Orient Pearle" (8) are obviously teeth, but in the context of the embedded metaphor, they suggest that Cherry's other set of lips also "enclose" (7) a treasure much more cherished. Both pairs of lips serve to guard Cherry's chastity, as figurative and literal doorways.

Cherry is a London street vendor, imaginary or otherwise. The refrain "Cherry ripe themselves doe cry" (6, 12, 18) is an allusion to the cry of a fruit salesperson, announcing the fresh ripeness of his or her wares. Fruit vending was a vocation most common to the female population, mostly due to the laws that did not allow women an education beyond what was necessary to bear children. As such, income was a definite problem for most unmarried women in the big city. They resorted not only to the selling of fruits on the streets by day, but to selling their bodies in the dark alleyways by night. This was not uncommon. Cherry is contrapuntal to the societal pattern of Campion's day. Though she was a fruit vendor, her body remained her own, "which none may buy" (5) until she gives her assent: "Till Cherry ripe themselves doe cry" (6, 12, 18).

"There is a Garden in her face" is Thomas Campion's little snub at the state of his society, in the guise of a romantic poem. His love object, Cherry, is a beautiful and virtuous fruit vendor - a virtually unknown breed of fruit vendor in the 16th century streets of London. Cherry is protective of her chastity, dispelling any lustful stares or errant hands with a "piercing frowne" (15) and a sharp retort. Cleverly wrapped in a common romance poem package, he paints a picture of how women should cherish their bodies as they would gifts from God. While Campion has since died and fruit vendors no longer moonlight as prostitutes, the same problems still persist in our society today.