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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNETS ON ENGLISH DRAMATIC POETS: 19. THE MANY by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE

Poet Analysis

First Line: GREENE, GARLANDED WITH FEBRUARY'S FEW FLOWERS
Last Line: LIVE LIKEWISE YE: TIME TAKES NOT YOU FOR SLAVES.
Subject(s): SEASONS; TIME;

GREENE, garlanded with February's few flowers,
Ere March came in with Marlowe's rapturous rage:
Peele, from whose hand the sweet white locks of age
Took the mild chaplet woven of honored hours:
Nash, laughing hard: Lodge, flushed from lyric bowers:
And Lilly, a goldfinch in a twisted cage
Fed by some gay great lady's pettish page
Till short sweet songs gush clear like short spring showers:
Kid, whose grim sport still gambolled over graves:
And Chettle, in whose fresh funereal verse
Weeps Marian yet on Robin's wildwood hearse:
Cooke, whose light boat of song one soft breath saves,
Sighed from a maiden's amorous mouth averse:
Live likewise ye: Time takes not you for slaves.



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