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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE TRAGEDY OF VALENTINIAN: THE POWER OF LOVE by JOHN FLETCHER

First Line: HEAR YE, LADIES THAT DESPISE
Last Line: HE CAN BUILD, AND ONCE MORE FIRE.
Subject(s): LOVE;

HEAR ye, ladies, that despise,
What the mighty love has done;
Fear examples, and be wise:
Fair Callisto was a nun;
Leds, sailing on the stream
To deceive the hopes of man,
Love accounting but a dream,
Doted on a silver swan;
Danae, in a brazen tower,
Where no love was, loved a shower.

Hear, ye ladies that are coy,
What the mighty love can do;
Fear the fierceness of the boy:
The chaste moon he makes to woo;
Vesta, kindling holy fires,
Circled round about with spies,
Never dreaming loose desires,
Doting at the altar dies;
Ilion, in a short hour, higher
He can build, and once more fire.



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