Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON BORROWING PLUMES, by GEORGE MEASON WHICHER



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON BORROWING PLUMES, by                    
First Line: It is too true: my sonnets' every phrase
Last Line: From long, loud-thundering billows of miltonic seas.
Subject(s): Borrowers And Lenders; Plagiarism; Poetry & Poets


It is too true: my sonnets' every phrase
Is but a gleaning from the field of song.
All my poor fancies have seen better days;
My flocks of rhyme to other folds belong.
I joy to steal a crumb from Chaucer's feast;
Echo a cadence Shelley's lips have stirred;
Or taste again with Keats (rich fare, at least!)
Some rare-ripe, long forgotten, luscious word.
Even my thoughts are plunder: this has known
The lightning-heat of Shakespeare's brain erewhile;
That broad gold piece once Browning stamped his own;
This gem was smoothed by Gray's experienced file;
That pearl of price I brought -- for my heart's ease --
From long, loud-thundering billows of Miltonic seas.





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