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William Blake

Does the Eagle know what is in the pit?

Or wilt thou go ask the Mole:

Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod?

Or Love in a golden bowl?

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noun

One who, or that which, accelerates.

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WITH THE FOLLOWING POEM OF PALAMON AND ARCITE.

38 lines
John Dryden·1631–1700
ADAM, The bard who first adorned our native tongueTuned to his British lyre this ancient song;Which Homer might without a blush reherse,And leaves a doubtful palm in Virgil's verse:He matched their beauties, where they most excel;Of love sung better, and of-arms as well. Vouchsafe, illustrious Ormond, to beholdWhat power the charms of beauty had of old;Nor wonder if such deeds of arms were done,Inspired by two fair eyes that sparkled like your own. If Chaucer by the best idea wrought,And poets can divine each other's thought,The fairest nymph before his eyes he set;And then the fairest was Plantagenet,Who three contending princes made her prize,And ruled the rival nations with her eyes;Who left immortal trophies of her fame,And to the noblest order gave the name. Like her, of equal kindred to the throne,You keep her conquests, and extend your own: As when the stars, in their etherial race,At length have rolled around the liquid space,At certain periods they resume their place,From the same point of heaven their course advance,And move in measures of their former dance;Thus, after length of ages, she returns,Restored in you, and the same place adorns:Or you perform her office in the sphere,Born of her blood, and make a new Platonic year. O true Plantagenet, O race divine,(For beauty still is fatal to the line,)Had Chaucer lived that angel-face to view,Sure he had drawn his Emily from you;Or had you lived to judge the doubtful right,Your noble Palamon had been the knight;And conquering Theseus from his side had sentYour generous lord, to guide the Theban government.