Delight in Disorder

“What Kind of Mistress He Would Have” by Robert Herrick (1648) 

This poem, also published in Hesperides, details similar ideas regarding what an ideal woman might be and uses wording that is almost the same as that in “Delight in Disorder.” Touching on order and disarray, the speaker suggests that the would-be mistress will be 

[p]ure enough, though not precise

Be she showing in her dress 

Like a civil wilderness

That the curious may detect

Order in a sweet neglect (Lines 19-23). 

This is similar to the phrasing in “Delight in Disorder,” in which the speaker contrasts the “too precise” (Line 14) artifice they don’t like with the “wild civility” (Line 12) they do. Further, the “sweet neglect” (Line 23) in “The Mistress He Would Have” is just a rewriting of the “sweet disorder” (Line 1) in “Delight in Disorder.” The mistress’s hair is also described as “an enchantment, or a snare” (Line 12), much like how the woman’s easy dressing in “Delight in Disorder” “bewitch[es]” (Line 13) the speaker.

“Upon Julia’s Clothes” by Robert Herrick (1648)

In this poem, Herrick’s speaker also focuses on a woman wearing a garment. Here, Julia wears “silks” (Line 1), and the speaker marvels “how sweetly flows / That liquefaction of her clothes” (Lines 2-3).