The Author to the Reader

Francis Beaumont 1584 (Grace-Dieu) – 1616 (London)



I sing the fortune of a luckless pair,
Whose spotless souls now in one body be;
For beauty still is Prodromus to care,
Crost by the sad stars of nativity:
And of the strange enchantment of a well,
Given by the Gods, my sportive muse doth write,
Which sweet-lipp'd Ovid long ago did tell,
Wherein who bathes, straight turns Hermaphrodite:
  I hope my poem is so lively writ,
  That thou wilt turn half-mad with reading it.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

23 sec read
438

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCDEE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 421
Words 78
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 10

Francis Beaumont

Francis Beaumont, judge, was the eldest son of John Beaumont, sometime master of the rolls, by his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Hastings. more…

All Francis Beaumont poems | Francis Beaumont Books

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