Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A COUNSEL (TO A FRIEND), by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A COUNSEL (TO A FRIEND), by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When daphne's angel, shamming death
Last Line: And drink it on her mouth!


WHEN Daphne's angel, shamming death,
Is faithless, never twit
In syllables of angry breath
The child for want of wit.
Reproach her in the cunning way
Was shown for thee of old:
If speech be silvern, wise men say
That silence shall be gold.

'Tis best to lift that ornament
Upon the mantelpiece,
And note how metal, wisely bent,
Can shape a faun of Greece.
While praising in thy heart the curves
Thou fondlest with thine eyes,
Keep watch for Daphne's ebbing nerves
And clover-coming sighs.

Be patient. Thou at last shalt see
Her bosom's ragged tide,
Growing weaker by the strength of thee,
In loveliness subside.
She touches wistfully the faun,
To tell that in her south
Thy star is up. Accept the dawn,
And drink it on her mouth!





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