RPO -- <small>ANONYMOUS</small> : His Golden Locks Time hath to Silver Turn'd

ANONYMOUS (1100-1945)

His Golden Locks Time hath to Silver Turn'd

From POLYHYMNIA

1His golden locks time hath to silver turn'd;

2 O time too swift, O swiftness never ceasing!

3His youth 'gainst time and age hath ever spurn'd,

4 But spurn'd in vain; youth waneth by increasing:

5Beauty, strength, youth, are flowers but fading seen;

6Duty, faith, love, are roots, and ever green.

7His helmet now shall make a hive for bees;

8 And lovers' sonnets turn'd to holy psalms,

9A man-at-arms must now serve on his knees,

10 And feed on prayers, which are age his alms:

11But though from court to cottage he depart,

12His saint is sure of his unspotted heart.

13And when he saddest sits in homely cell,

14 He'll teach his swains this carol for a song:

15"Blest be the hearts that wish my sovereign well,

16 Curst be the souls that think her any wrong."

17Goddess, allow this aged man his right,

18To be your beadsman now that was your knight.

Notes

1] A long verse description of a tournament, at first attributed in RPO to Peele, supposedly devised for Sir Henry Lee (1530-1610). Lee had in 1559 made a vow to defend Elizabeth's honour against all challengers in an annual tournament to be held on her birthday. By 1590 he was too old to tilt, and in this song he makes his complimentary and graceful withdrawal. David H. Horne in his The Life and Minor Works of George Peele (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952), however, argues persuasively that Peele is not the author (169-73) and does not firmly attribute it to anyone else.

10] age his alms: the alms of age.

18] beadsman: one endowed to pray for others.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: George Peele, Polyhymnia describing, the honourable triumph at Tylt (R. Jhones, 1590). STC 19546.
First publication date: 1590
RPO poem editor: F. D. Hoeniger
RP edition: 3RP 1.148.
Recent editing: 2:2002/1/30*1:2006/11/12

Rhyme: ababcc

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