Page:Madagascar, with other poems - Davenant (1638).djvu/72

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To Endimion Porter.

HOw safe (Endimion) had I liv'd? how blest,In all the silent privacies of rest?How might I lengthen sleeps, had I beene wiseUnto my selfe, and never seene thine Eyes?My Verse (unenvy'd then) had learn'd to moveA slow, meeke pace; like sober Hymns of loveBy some noch'd-Brownist sung; that would indeereHis holy itch, to some chaste Midwives Eare:The pleasure of ambition then had bin,To me lost in the danger, and the sinne:The Mirtle Sprig (that never can decay)I had not knowne, nor Wreaths of living Bay:In stead of these, and the wild Ivy Twine,(Which our wise Fathers justly did assigne,To him that in immortall Verse exceeds)My Brow had worne, some homly Wreath of Weeds:

And

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