Poems and Songs :: :: University of Virginia Library

Poems and Songs

by Thomas Flatman. The Fourth Edition with many Additions and Amendments

Flatman, Thomas (1637-1688)

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The WISH.

SONG.

I

Not to the Hills where Cedars move
Their cloudy head, not to the Grove
Of Myrtles in th' Elysian shade,
Nor Tempe which the Poets made;

140

Not on the spicy Mountains play;
Or travel to Arabia:
I aim not at the careful Throne,
Which Fortune's darlings sit upon;
No, no, the best this fickle world can give,
Has but a little, little time to live,

II

But let me soar, O let me flie
Beyond poor Earths benighted eye,
Beyond the pitch swift Eagles towre,
Above the reach of humane Power;
Above the Stars, above the way,
Whence Phœbus darts his piercing Ray.
O let me tread those Courts that are,
So bright, so pure, so blest, so fair,
As neither thou, nor I must ever know
On Earth, 'tis thither, thither would I go.