Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PROLOGUE TO ANTONIO'S REVENGE, by JOHN MARSTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PROLOGUE TO ANTONIO'S REVENGE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The rawish dank of clumsy winter ramps
Last Line: Your favour will give crutches to our faults.


The rawish dank of clumsy winter ramps
The fluent summer's vein; and drizzling sleet
Chilleth the wan bleak cheek of the numbed earth,
While snarling gusts nibble the juiceless leavesFrom the nak'd shuddering
branch, and pills the skin
From off the soft and delicate aspects.
O now methinks a sullen tragic scene
Would suit the time with pleasing congruence.
May we be happy in our weak devoir,
And all part pleased in most wished content.
But sweat of Hercules can ne'er beget
So blest an issue. Therefore we proclaim,
If any spirit breathes within this round
Uncapable of weighty passion,
(As from his birth being hugged in the arms
And nuzzled 'twixt the breasts of Happiness)
Who winks and shuts his apprehension up
Of common sense of what men were, and are;
Who would not know what men must be; let such
Hurry amain from our black-visaged shows,
We shall affright their eyes. But if a breast
Nailed to the earth with grief, if any heart
Pierced through with anguish pant within this ring,
If there be any blood whose heat is choked
And stifled with true sense of misery;
If aught of these strains fill his consort up,
They arrive most welcome. O that our power
Could lackey or keep wing with our desires,
That with unused poise of style and sense
We might weigh massy in judicious scale!
Yet here's the prop that doth support our hopes;
When our scenes falter or invention halts,
Your favour will give crutches to our faults.





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