Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IZAAC WALTON, COTTON, AND WILLIAM OLDWAYS, by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IZAAC WALTON, COTTON, AND WILLIAM OLDWAYS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Son cotton! These light idle brooks
Last Line: Just like these idle waves, son cotton!
Subject(s): Authors & Authorship; Books; Literature; Walton, Izaak (1593-1683); Writing & Writers; Reading


Son Cotton! these light idle brooks,
Peeping into so many nooks,
Yet have not for their idlest wave
The leisure you may think they have:
No, not the little ones that run
And hide behind the first big stone,
When they have squirted in the eye
Of their next neighbour passing by;
Nor yonder curly sideling fellow
Of tones than Pan's own flute more mellow,
Who learns his tune and tries it over
As girl who fain would please her lover.
Something has each of them to say ...
He says it, and then runs away,
And says it in another place ...
Continuing the unthrifty chase.
We have as many tales to tell,
And look as gay and run as well,
But leave another to pursue
What we had promised we would do,
Till, in the order God has fated,
One after one precipitated,
Whether we would on, or would not on,
Just like these idle waves, son Cotton!





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