All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet Being Sixty and three in Number. Collected into one Volume by the Author [i.e. John Taylor]: With sundry new Additions, corrected, reuised, and newly Imprinted |
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 | All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet |  |
The Authour in his owne defence.
If any where my lines doe fall out lame,I made them so, in merriment and game:
For, be they wide, or side, or long, or short,
All's one to me, I writ them but in sport;
Yet I would haue the Reader thus much know,
That when I lift my simple skill to show
In poesie, I could both read and spell:
I know my Dactils, and my Spondees well;
My true proportion, and my equall measure,
What accent must be short, and what at leasure,
How to transpose my words from place to place,
To giue my poesie the greater grace,
Either in Pastorall or Comick straine,
In Tragedy, or any other vaine,
In nipping Satyrs, or in Epigrams,
In Odes, in Elegies, or Anagrams,
In eare-bewitching rare Hexameters,
Or in Iämbicke, or Pentameters:
I know these like a Sculler, not a Scholler,
And therefore Poet, pray asswage your choller,
If as a theefe in writing you enuy me,
Before you iudge me, doe your worst and try me.
I. T.
| All the workes of Iohn Taylor the Water-Poet | |