IF to be sprung of high and princely blood, If to inherit virtue, honour, grace, If to be great in all things, and yet good, If to be facile, yet t' have power and place, If to be just, and bountiful, may get The love of men, your right may challenge it. The course of foreign manners far and wide, The courts, the countries, cities, towns and state, The blossom of your springing youth hath tried, Honoured in every place and fortunate, Which now grown fairer doth adorn our Court With princely revelling and timely sport. But if th' admired virtues of your youth Breed such despairing to my daunted muse, That it can scarcely utter naked truth, How shall it mount as ravished spirits use Under the burden of your riper days, Or hope to reach the so far distant bays? My slender Muse shall yet my love express, And by the fair Thames' side of you she'll sing; The double streams shall bear her willing verse Far hence with murmur of their ebb and spring. But if you favour her light tunes, ere long She'll strive to raise you with a loftier song. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GRAND ARMY PLAZA by KAREN SWENSON EXCELSIOR by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE BARTHOLDI STATUE by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER TO THE RETURNED GIRLS by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS THE SONG OF THE DIAL by PETER AIREY CEN'LIN, PRINCE OF MERCIA by MATILDA BARBARA BETHAM-EDWARDS |