Classic Poem

THE MANY

Greene, garlanded with February's few flowers,
 Ere March came in with Marlowe's rapturous rage:
 Peele, from whose hand the sweet white locks of age
Took the mild chaplet woven of honoured hours:
Nash, laughing hard: Lodge, flushed from lyric bowers:
 And Lilly, a goldfinch in a twisted cage
 Fed by some gay great lady's pettish page
Till short sweet songs gush clear like short spring showers:
Kid, whose grim sport still gambolled over graves:
 And Chettle, in whose fresh funereal verse
 Weeps Marian yet on Robin's wildwood hearse:
Cooke, whose light boat of song one soft breath saves,
 Sighed from a maiden's amorous mouth averse:
Live likewise ye: Time takes not you for slaves.