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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CAELICA: 28 by FULKE GREVILLE

Poet Analysis

First Line: YOU FAITHLESS BOY, PERSUADE YOU ME TO REASON?
Last Line: AS MORTAL, MUST FEEL SICKNESS, AGE, AND DIE.

You faithless boy, persuade you me to reason?
With virtue do you answer my affection?
Virtue, which you with livery and seisin
Have sold and changed out of your protection.

When you lay flattering in sweet Myra's eyes,
And played the wanton both with worth and pleasure,
In beauty's field you told me virtue dies,
Excess and infinite in love was measure.

I took your oath of dalliance and desire,
Myra did so inspire me with her graces,
But like a wag that sets the straw on fire,
You running to do harm in other places,
Sware what is felt with hand, or seen with eye,
As mortal, must feel sickness, age, and die.



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