HONOUR'S bright ray, More highly crown'd with virtue than with years, Pardon a rustic Muse that thus appears In shepherd's grey, Entreating your attention to a lay Fitting a sylvan bower, not courtly trains; Such choicer ears, Should have Apollo's priests, not Pan's rude swains. But if the music of contented plains A thought uprears For your approvement of that part she bears, When time (that embryons to perfection brings) Hath taught her strains May better boast their being from the spring Where brave heroës' worths the Sisters sing: (In lines whose reigns In spite of Envy and her restless pains Be unconfin'd as blest eternity:) The vales shall ring Thy honour'd name, and every song shall be A pyramis built to thy memory. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PARADOX by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR PIED BEAUTY by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS SONNET TO ALISA ROCK by JOHN KEATS LATE LEAVES by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR THE TABLES TURNED by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH TO THE RAILROAD MEN by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS |