University of Virginia Library


34

To the right worthy Knight Sir George Somers.

Although (braue Knight) the cold and frozen pen
Of Winter, cannot paint out Somers praise;
Yet giue me leaue (thou ornament of men)
Among these short and il-compos'd Essayes,
With thy rich name to cloath my naked verse,
And onely glance at thy deserued glorie;
Sith if I should thy famous deedes rehearse,
These lines would swell into an ample storie.
An ample storie that ensample might
Braue minds, to fixe their eyes on markes of honor,
Directed by thy true-directing light,
To find out vertue, and attend vpon her.
But though I cannot (as I would) expresse
The loue that vnto thy desert I owe:
Yet my desire increaseth nerethelesse,
That this, my Muse may briefly let thee know:
As long as winter somer shall succeede,
Winter is thine in thought, in word, in deede.
T. Winter.