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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CAELICA: 34 by FULKE GREVILLE

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE GODS TO SHOW THEY JOY NOT IN OFFENSES
Last Line: IN THY SWEET FIRES, LET ME BURN THIS FAIR ROD.

The gods to show they joy not in offenses,
Nor plague of human nature do desire,
When they have made their rods and whipped our senses,
They throw the rods themselves into the fire.

Then Cupid, thou whom man hath made a god,
Be like thy fellow gods in weight and fashion,
And now my faults are punished, burn the rod
In fires blown with many-headed passion.

Thy rod is worth in Myra's beauty placed,
Which like a sun hath power to burn another,
And though itself can no affections taste,
To be in all men else affection's mother;
Therefore, if thou wilt prove thyself a god,
In thy sweet fires, let me burn this fair rod.



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