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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO THE UNPARALLELED AUTHOR OF THE SEQUENT POEMS, W.B., by NICHOLAS DOWNEY First Line: Hail, albion's swain, whose worthy brow those bays Last Line: Continual candles on thy lasting urn. Subject(s): Browne, William (1591-1645) | |||
HAIL, Albion's swain, whose worthy brow those bays, G'en to the victor in Pan's pastoral plays, Ere since thy pipe's first birth have bound, whose tongue Our loves on once lov'd Syrinx freely sung. When mountains' heads and storm-wrong'd shrubs did cast Their long shades westward, and when shepherds haste To 'nbed their pended flocks, how oft among The various sonnets of a neighbouring throng Hast thou enchanted with a strong desire To learn thy accents great Sylvanus' quire, Who, like young infants willing to obtain Their nurses' dialect and perfect strain, Labour'd a repetition; here the thrush Strove with his whistle; in next bord'ring bush, Shrouded about, was the small redbreast set,With list'ning ears, and unwilling to let Nought pass, turn'd echo to thy tunes; above, The soaring lark did meditating move Her gutling tongue; but each in vain; at last, Though out of tune, proud Philomel's distaste To hear a rival did dispose the choice Of nat'ral notes into an artlike voice. Thy heavenly harmony sounding below, Among the vales, the river gods did draw Above their streams, shaking their silver hair; Then lifted up, the anthems seem'd more rare; Rap'd with such music their cold monarchy Abandon'd straight, they mounted up on high, There stood attentive all, as if upon Parnassus' top, Apollo's station, He harping lay, and with smooth Mercury Had shar'd the spheres by better melody. Thus long in admiration of both lays, They gave the sentence, thou obtain'st the praise, And with insinuation did entreat That Tavy's banks might be thy frequent seat: They had their will, thou yield'st a loath consent, Thy winds must calm their swelling element, And hear the water-nymphs e'er since that time. We hinds, remembering thy mellifluous rhyme, Covet to drive our cherelie flocks along That crystal lake to hear thy wonted song, That song which metamorphos'd raping bears, And train'd the crafty fox into her snares. The happier Fates had favour'd fair Marine, Had thy lips woo'd for her her Celandine; If Remond could persuade as thou canst move, Had chang'd to hate that beauty's disdain'd love; Nor had the labour of a deity Needed to quicken her mortality, Thy charming voice had done 't; for thy song's sake Charon had wherried from the Stygian lake Again her ghost; nor hath thy peerless verse Done less, thou must immortalize thy herse. Thou'st quite forsook Pan's sports, the more the grief, His joy the more, thou absent, he's the chief; We've lost thy fellowship, not lost thy fame, We'll teach our children to adore thy name. When as our Cornish or Devonian swains Still sport among their lambkins on the plains, Or celebrate their festivals, we'll raise Our old reed once to Pan's, twice to thy praise; And when great Jove thy soul angelical Shall summon us to sing thy madrigal, Our .... shall want their tallow, but we'll burn Continual candles on thy lasting urn. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODE ENTREATING HIM ... IN THE CONTINUATION OF BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS by NICHOLAS BRETON TO HIS FRIEND THE AUTHOR UPON HIS POEM by CHRISTOPHER BROOKE TO HIS FRIEND THE AUTHOR by AUGUSTUS CAESAR TO MY NOBLE FRIEND THE AUTHOR by UPTON CROKE TO MY BROWNE, YET BRIGHTEST SWAIN / THAT WOONS, OR ... PLAIN by JOHN DAVIES (1565-1618) IDEM AND EUNDEM; AN ODE by NICHOLAS DOWNEY COMMENDATORY VERSE TO WILLIAM BROWNE OF TAVISTOCK by MICHAEL DRAYTON TO MY NOBLE FRIEND MASTER WILLIAM BROWNE: OF THE EVIL TIME by MICHAEL DRAYTON ON THE AUTHOR OF BRITANNIA'S PEERLESS PASTORALS by JOHN DYNHAM IDEM AND EUNDEM; AN ODE by NICHOLAS DOWNEY SONG OF SEID NIMETOLLAH OF KUHISTAN by AMIR NURU'D-DIN NI'MATU'LLAH |
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