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THIRD BOOK OF AIRS: TO SIR THOMAS MOUNSON, KNIGHT AND BARONET, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Since now these clouds, that lately over-cast
Last Line: That innocence doth pity and defend.
Subject(s): Innocence; Mounson, Sir Thomas (16th Century)


SINCE now these clouds, that lately over-cast
Your fame and fortune, are dispersed at last:
And now since all to you fair greetings make;
Some out of love, and some for pity's sake:
Shall I but with a common style salute
Your new enlargement? or stand only mute?
I, to whose trust and care you durst commit
Your pined health, when art despaired of it?
I, that in your affliction often viewed
In you the fruits of manly fortitude,
Patience, and even constancy of mind
That rock-like stood, and scorned both wave and wind?
Should I, for all your ancient love to me,
Endowed with weighty favours, silent be?
Your merits and my gratitude forbid
That either should in Lethean gulf lie hid;
But how shall I this work of fame express?
How can I better, after pensiveness,
Than with light strains of Music, made to move
Sweetly with the wide spreading plumes of Love?
These youth-born Airs, then, prisoned in this book,
Which in your bowers much of their being took,
Accept as a kind offering from that hand
Which, joined with heart, your virtue may command!
Who love a sure friend, as all good men do,
Since such you are, let these affect you too.
And may the joys of that Crown never end,
That innocence doth pity and defend.





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