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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE POET'S GIFT by PIERRE DE RONSARD

First Line: THAT CENTURY TO CENTURY MAY TELL
Last Line: OF EARTH, SO LONG AS PENS AND BOOKS ENDURE.
Subject(s): BEAUTY; DEATH; GIFTS & GIVING; LOVE; POETRY & POETS; TIME; DEAD, THE;

THAT century to century may tell
The perfect love Ronsard once bore to you,
How he was reason-reft for love of you
And thought it freedom in your chains to dwell;

That age on age posterity full well
May know my veins were filled with beauty of you
And that my heart's one wish was only you,
I bring for gift to you this immortelle.

Long will it live in freshness of its prime.
And you shall live, through me, long after death --
So can the well-skilled lover conquer Time,

Who loving you all virtue followeth.
Like Laura, you shall live the cynosure
Of earth, so long as pens and books endure.



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