Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FAREWELL, by HENRY KING (1592-1669)


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THE FAREWELL, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Farewell, fond love, under whose childinsh whip
Last Line: The hollow echo will reply, 'twas I.
Subject(s): Farewell; Parting


FAREWELL, fond Love, under whose childish whip,
I have serv'd out a weary prenti'ship;
Thou that hast made me thy scorn'd property,
To doat on rocks, but yielding loves to fly:
Go, bane of my dear quiet and content,
Now practise on some other patient.

Farewell, false Hope, that fann'd my warm desire
Till it had rais'd a wild unruly fire,
Which nor sighs cool, nor tears extinguish can,
Although my eyes out-flow'd the Ocean:
Forth of my thoughts for ever, Thing of Air,
Begun in error, finish'd in despair.

Farewell, vain World, upon whose restless stage
'Twixt Love and Hope I have fool'd out my age;
Henceforth, ere sue to thee for my redress,
I'll woo the wind, or court the wilderness;
And buried from the day's discovery,
Study a slow yet certain way to die.

My woful monument shall be a cell,
The murmur of the purling brook my knell;
My lasting epitaph the rock shall groan:
Thus when sad lovers ask the weeping stone,
What wretched thing does in that centre lie?
The hollow Echo will reply, 'twas I.





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