Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO CUPID, by MICHAEL DRAYTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO CUPID, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Maidens, why spare ye?
Last Line: More good they had taught him.
Subject(s): Cupid; Eros


Maydens, why spare ye?
Or whether not dare ye
Correct the blind Shooter?
Because wanton VENUS,
So oft that doth paine us,
Is her Sonnes Tutor.

Now in the Spring,
He proveth his Wing,
The Field is his Bower,
And as the small Bee,
About flyeth hee,
From Flower to Flower.

And wantonly roves,
Abroad in the Groves,
And in the Ayre hovers,
Which when it him deweth,
His Fethers he meweth,
In sighes of true Lovers.

And since doom'd by Fate,
(That well knew his Hate)
That Hee should be blinde;
For very despite,
Our Eyes be his White,
So wayward his kinde.

If his Shafts loosing,
(Ill his Marke choosing)
Or his Bow broken;
The Moane VENUS maketh,
And care that she taketh,
Cannot be spoken.

To VULCAN commending
Her love, and straight sending
Her Doves and her Sparrowes,
With Kisses unto him,
And all but to woo him,
To make her Sonne Arrowes.

Telling what he hath done,
(Sayth she, Right mine owne Sonne)
In her Armes she him closes,
Sweetes on him fans,
Layd in Downe of her Swans,
His Sheets, Leaves of Roses.

And feeds him with Kisses;
Which oft when he misses,
He ever is froward:
The Mothers o'r-joying,
Makes by much coying
The Child so untoward.

Yet in a fine Net,
That a Spider set,
The Maydens had caught him;
Had she not been neere him,
And chanced to heare him,
More good they had taught him.





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