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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 19 by THOMAS CAMPION

Poet Analysis

First Line: LIGHTEN, HEAVY HEART, THY SPRITE
Last Line: TO VIEW A STREAM THAT BRIGHTLY FLOWS.
Subject(s): CONDUCT OF LIFE;

LIGHTEN, heavy heart, thy sprite,
The joys recall that thence are fled;
Yield thy breast some living light;
The man that nothing doth is dead.
Tune thy temper to these sounds,
And quicken so thy joyless mind;
Sloth the worst and best confounds:
It is the ruin of mankind.

From her cave rise all distastes,
Which unresolved Despair pursues;
Whom soon after, Violence hastes,
Herself, ungrateful, to abuse.
Skies are cleared with stirring winds,
Th' unmoved water moorish grows;
Every eye much pleasure finds
To view a stream that brightly flows.



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