TO HIS FRIEND THE AUTHOR UPON HIS POEM by CHRISTOPHER BROOKE

THIS plant is knotless that puts forth these leaves,
Upon whose branches I his praise do sing:
Fruitful the ground, whose verdure it receives
From fertile Nature, and the learned Spring.
In zeal to good known, but unpractis'd ill,
Chaste in his thoughts, though in his youthful prime,
He writes of past'ral love with nectar'd quill,
And offers up his first fruits unto Time.
Receive them (Time) and in thy border place them
Among thy various flowers of poesy;
No envy blast, nor ignorance deface them,
But keep them fresh in fairest memory!
And, when from Daphne's tree he plucks more bays,
His Shepherd's Pipe may chant more heav'nly lays.

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