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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CAELICA: 53 by FULKE GREVILLE

Poet Analysis

First Line: BUT THAT FAMILIAR THINGS ARE NEVER WONDER
Last Line: THAT LOVE BE CONSTANT, OR COME BACK AGAIN.

But that familiar things are never wonder,
What greater beauty than the heaven's glories?
Where Phoebus shines, and when he is gone under,
Leaveth in fairest stars man's fatal stories;
Yet Venus choose with Mars the netty bed
Before that heavenly life which Vulcan led.

Who doth entreat the winter not to rain,
Or in a storm the wind to leave his blowing?
Ladies, show you how Juno did complain,
Of Jupiter unto Europa going.
Fair nymphs, if I woo Cynthia not to leave me,
You know 'tis I myself, not she, deceives me.

Masters that ask their scholars' leave to beat them,
Husbands that bid their wives tell all they know,
Men that give children sweet meats not to eat them,
And who entreats, you know entreats in vain,
That love be constant, or come back again.



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