Michael Drayton

“Next these, learn’d Jonson, in this list I bring,Who had drunk deep of the Pierian spring.”

“For that fine madness still he did retainWhich rightly should possess a poet’s brain.”

“Marlowe, bathed in Thespian springsHad in him those brave translunary things,That the first poets had.”

“To my mild tutor merrily I came(For I was then a proper goodly pageMuch like a pigmy, scarce ten years of age)Clasping my slender arms about his thigh.O my dear master! cannot you (quoth I)Make me a poet? Do it, if you can,And you shall see, I’ll quickly be a man.”

“That shire which we the Heart of England well may call.”

“Crave the tuneful nightingale to help you with her lay,The ousel and the throstlecock, chief music of our May.”