Representative Poetry Online

Poems

Poets

Poetry

Random Poem of the Day

Idea LIII: To the River Ancor

Drayton, Michael
1Clear Ancor, on whose silver-sanded shore
2My soul-shrin'd saint, my fair Idea lies,
3O blessed brook, whose milk-white swans adore
4Thy crystal stream, refined by her eyes,
5Where sweet myrrh-breathing Zephyr in the spring
6Gently distils his nectar-dropping showers,
7Where nightingales in Arden sit and sing
8Amongst the dainty dew-impearled flowers;
9Say thus, fair brook, when thou shalt see thy queen:
10Lo, here thy shepherd spent his wand'ring years,
11And in these shades, dear nymph, he oft hath been,
12And here to thee he sacrific'd his tears.
13Fair Arden, thou my Tempe art alone,
14And thou, sweet Ancor, art my Helicon.

Notes

1] Ancor: sometimes spelt Anker; a small Warwickshire river passing through the estate of Polesworth Hall, where Drayton's "Idea," Anne Goodere, lived. Back to Line
7] Arden: in Shakespeare's and Drayton's day a great forest in Warwickshire. Back to Line
13] Tempe: a beautiful valley in Thessaly, Greece. Cf. Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, opening stanza. Back to Line
14] Helicon: a mountain in Boeotia, Greece, sacred to the Muses. Back to Line