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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


BUTTERED PIPPIN-PIES by JOHN DAVIES (1565-1618)

Poet Analysis

First Line: IF THERE WERE, OH! AN HELLESPONT OF CREAM
Last Line: WHICH HAVING FOUND, IF THEY TOBACCO KEPT, %THE SMOKE SHOULD DRY ME WELL BEFORE I SLEPT
Subject(s): FOOD AND EATING;

If there were, oh! an Hellespont of cream
Between us, milk-white Mistress, I would swim
To you, to show to both my love's extreme,
Leander-like, - yea! dive from brim to brim.
But met I with a butter'd pippin-pie
Floating upon't, that would I make my boat,
To waft me to you without jeopardy:
Though sea-sick I might be while it did float.
Yet if a storm should rise, by night or day,
Of sugar snows and hail of care-aways,
Then, if I found a pancake in my way,
It like a plank should bring me to your kays,
Which having found, if they tobacco kept,
The smoke should dry me well before I slept.




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