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Home  »  Elizabethan Sonnets  »  Sonnet I. Courteous Calliope, vouchsafe to lend

Seccombe and Arber, comps. Elizabethan Sonnets. 1904.

Chloris

Sonnet I. Courteous Calliope, vouchsafe to lend

William Smith (fl. 1596)

COURTEOUS CALLIOPE, vouchsafe to lend

Thy helping hand to my untunèd Song!

And grace these Lines, which I to write pretend,

Compelled by love which doth poor CORIN wrong.

And those, thy sacred Sisters, I beseech,

Which on Parnassus’ Mount do ever dwell,

To shield my country Muse and rural speech

By their divine authority and spell.

Lastly to thee, O PAN, the shepherds’ King;

And you swift footed Dryades, I call!

Attend to hear a swain in verse to sing

Sonnets of her that keeps his heart in thrall!

O CHLORIS, weigh the task I undertake!

Thy beauty, subject of my Song I make.