Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO THE NOW UNPARALLELED SIDNEY OF HIS TIME, W.B., by CHRISTOPHER GEWEN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO THE NOW UNPARALLELED SIDNEY OF HIS TIME, W.B., by                    
First Line: Play on thy pipe new lessons; willy, strike
Last Line: Continue still with us, and let our valesreverberate in echo thy sweet tales.
Subject(s): Browne, William (1591-1645)


PLAY on thy pipe new lessons; Willy, strike
More such as these which may each shepherd like;
And if it chance Thetis do once again
Visit our coasts, be thou the elected swain
To greet her with thy lays; let her admire
The varying accents of thy matchless lyre,
And so affect thee for thy poems' sake,
Adopt thee hers, and thee her usher make.
But leave us not, blithe swain; let Tavy's stream
Leave of to murmur list'ning to thy theme,
Lest thy sweet lays so great effect obtain,
As here on land, so there upon the main,
As lasses here admir'd thy matchless verse,
So there the sea-nymphs still thy praise rehearse,
'Twixt both a great contention it will breed,
Who hath most interest in thine oaten reed,
Which harder will appeased be than theirs
Who strove to be esteem'd the blind bard's heirs.
Those claim thee theirs in that thou dost forsake
Thy native cotes, and there thy mansion make;
The lambkins here did frisk to hear thee play,
Less nourish'd by their grass than with thy lay;
So would the dolphins then attend thy song,
And none left Triton whom to ride upon,
Which might incense him seeing one the fry,
And vaster shoals pressing to come most nigh,
To hear thy melody, and to refuse
His trumpet's sounds, to which they still did use
Before to throng, to pray thee do not come,
But sweetly pipen at thy native home.
Continue still with us, and let our valesReverberate in echo thy sweet tales.





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