Thursday, April 20, 2023

Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)


Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA, Andrew Marvell

The Mower to the Glow-Worms

Ye living lamps, by whose dear light 

The nightingale does sit so late, 

And studying all the summer night, 

Her matchless songs does meditate; 

Ye country comets, that portend 

No war nor prince’s funeral, 

Shining unto no higher end 

Than to presage the grass’s fall; 

Ye glow-worms, whose officious flame 

To wand’ring mowers shows the way, 

That in the night have lost their aim, 

And after foolish fires do stray; 

Your courteous lights in vain you waste, 

Since Juliana here is come, 

For she my mind hath so displac’d 

That I shall never find my home.

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