To Sir William Davenant

UPON HIS TWO FIRST BOOKS OF GONDIBERT

FINISHED BEFORE HIS VOYAGE TO AMERICA.

METHINKS heroick poesy till now,

Like some fantastick fairy-land did show;

Gods, devils, nymphs, witches and giants’ race,

And all but man, in man’s chief work had place.

Thou, like some worthy knight with sacred arms,

Dost drive the monsters thence, and end the charms:

Instead of those dost men and manners plant,

The things which that rich soil did chiefly want.

Yet ev’n thy Mortals do their Gods excel,

Taught by thy Muse to fight and love so well.

By fatal hands whilst present empires fall,

Thine from the grave past monarchies recall;

So much more thanks from human-kind does merit

The Poet’s fury than the zealot’s spirit.

And from the grave thou mak’st this empire rise,

Not like some dreadful ghost t’ affright our eyes,

But with more lustre and triumphant state,

Than when it crown’d at proud Verona sate.

So will our God rebuild man’s perished frame,

And raise him up much better, yet the same:

So God-like poets do past things rehearse,

Not change, but heighten, Nature by their verse.

With shame, methinks, great Italy must see

Her conquerors rais’d to life again by thee:

Rais’d by such pow’erful verse, that ancient Rome

May blush no less to see her wit o’ercome.

Some men their fancies like their faith, derive,

And think all ill but that which Rome does give;

The marks of Old and Catholick would find;

To the same chair would truth and fiction bind.

Thou in those beaten paths disdain’st to tread,

And scorn’st to live by robbing of the dead.

Since time does all things change, thou think’st not fit

This latter age should see all new but wit;

Thy fancy, like a flame, its way does make,

And leave bright tracks for following pens to take.

Sure ‘t was this noble boldness of the Muse

Did thy desire to seek new worlds infuse;

And ne’er did Heaven so much a voyage bless,

If thou canst plant but there with like success.

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External links

Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus

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Poems in English 

• Great-Heart by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Gethsemane by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Gentlmen-Rankers by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Gehazi by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Fuzzy-Wuzzy by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Ford o’ Kabul River by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• For To Admire by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• For All We Have And Are by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Follow Me ‘ome by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Farewell and adieu… by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Evarra And His Gods by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• England’s Answer by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Eddi’s Service by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Doctors by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Divided Destinies by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Delilah by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Dedication by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Dane-Geld by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Cuckoo Song by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Cruisers by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

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Doska or the Board – write anything

Search engines:

Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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