Comus (excerpts)

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    Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph that liv'st unseen
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       Within thy airy shell
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       By slow Meander's margent green,
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     And in the violet-imbroider'd vale
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       Where the love-lorn nightingale
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   Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well:
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   Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair
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       That likest thy Narcissus are?
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       O if thou have
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       Hid them in some flow'ry cave,
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       Tell me but where
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     Sweet Queen of Parley, Daughter of the Sphere,
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     So mayst thou be translated to the skies,
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   And give resounding grace to all heav'ns harmonies.

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    Sabrina fair
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     Listen where thou art sitting
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   Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,
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     In twisted braids of lilies knitting
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   The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;
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     Listen for dear honour's sake,
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     Goddess of the silver lake,
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        Listen and save.

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    Listen and appear to us
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   In name of great Oceanus,
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   By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace,
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   And Tethys' grave majestic pace;
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   By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look,
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   And the Carpathian wizard's hook;
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   By scaly Triton's winding shell,
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   And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell;
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   By Leucothea's lovely hands,
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   And her son that rules the strands;
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   By Thetis' tinsel-slipper'd feet,
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   And the songs of Sirens sweet;
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   By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,
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   And fair Ligea's golden comb,
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   Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks
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   Sleeking her soft alluring locks;
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   By all the nymphs that nightly dance
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   Upon thy streams with wily glance,
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   Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head
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   From thy coral-pav'n bed,
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   And bridle in thy headlong wave,
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   Till thou our summons answer'd have.
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        Listen and save.

SABRINA RISES, ATTENDED BY WATER-NYMPHS, AND SINGS
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     By the rushy-fringed bank,
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   Where grows the willow and the osier dank,
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     My sliding chariot stays,
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   Thick set with agate, and the azurn sheen
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   Of turkis blue, and em'rald green
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     That in the channel strays,
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   Whilst from off the waters fleet
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   Thus I set my printless feet
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   O'er the cowslip's velvet head,
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     That bends not as I tread;
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   Gentle swain at thy request
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     I am here.