Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO CHLORIS by EDMUND WALLER

Poet Analysis

First Line: CHLORIS, YOURSELF YOU SO EXCEL
Last Line: BUT OF HIS VOICE, THE BOY HAD MOURNED.
Subject(s): LOVE; SINGING & SINGERS; SONGS;
CHLORIS, yourself you so excel,
When you vouchsafe to breathe my thought,
That like a spirit, with this spell
Of my own teaching I am caught.

That eagle's fate and mine is one,
Which, on the shaft that made him die,
Espied a feather of his own,
Wherewith he wont to soar so high.

Had Echo, with so sweet a grace,
Narcissus' loud complaints returned;
Not for reflection of his face,
But of his voice, the boy had mourned.



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