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TO MR IOSUAH SYLUESTER by JOSEPH HALL

First Line: I DARE CONFESSE; OF MUSES, MORE THEN NINE
Last Line: ONE BARTAS SPEAKS IN TONGUES, IN NATIONS, TWAYN.
Subject(s): CONFESSIONS; FREEDOM; MUSES; NATIONS; SINGING & SINGERS; LIBERTY; SONGS;
I Dare confesse; of Muses, more then nine,
Nor list, nor can I enuy none, but thine.
Shee, drencht alone in @3Sion's@1 sacred Spring,
Her Makers praise hath sweetly chose to sing,
And reacheth nearest th'Angels notes aboue;
Nor lists to sing or Tales, or Warrs, or Loue.
One while I finde hir, in her nimble flight,
Cutting the brazen spheares of heav'n bright:
Thence, straight she glides, before I be aware,
Through the three regions of the liquid ayre:
Thence, rushing down, through @3Nature's@1 Closet-dore,
She ransacks all her Grandame's secret store;
And, diuing to the darknes of the Deep,
Sees there what wealth the waues in prison keep:
And, what she sees aboue, belowe, betweene,
She showes and sings to others eares and eyne.
T'is true; thy Muse another's steps doth presse:
The more's her paine; nor is her praise the less.
Freedom giues scope, vnto the rouing thought;
Which, by restraint, is curb'd. Who wonders ought,
That feet, vnfettered, walken farre, or fast?
Which, pent with chaines, mote want their wonted haste.
Thou follow'st @3Bartasses@1 diuiner streine;
And singst his numbers in his natiue veine.
@3BARTAS@1 was some French Angell, girt with Bayes:
And thou a @3BARTAS@1 art, in English Layes.
Whether is more? Me seemes (the sooth to say'n)
One @3BARTAS@1 speaks in Tongues, in Nations, twayn.



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