AN ANNOTATION by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN

@3The primrose way to the everlasting bonfire.@1

MACBETH II, iii.

@3Like a puffed and reckless libertine
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads.@1

HAMLET I, iii.

EMBLEM of early seeking, early finding,
Frailness whose patience stills the moody cries
Of old Time struggling through chaotic skies
Where the lashed sleet-gust foams, buffeting and blinding,
And then were ever the light in his calm eyes
May after May, a star so dear and mild
That love by the evening bell and you beguiled
Thinks echo charmed to your still bell replies;
Pilgrim, to whom the weaker sort will turn
Their pale looks, and your pale resolve responds,
Your paths are peace, they comfort and not burn,
There young Love strolls, old Adage stares in ponds.
With what strange wrong was Shakespeare mocked when he
So tossed you to the hooves of infamy?

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