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A Farewell to Arms by George Peele | Poetry Reading



Welcome to my poetry reading of A Farewell to Arms' by George Peele. Do you have a favourite poem or poet?


#poetryreading #poem #poetry My poetry reading playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOkhbMqb35EqA0jxno4tE3goZ1MAvjf4Q


'A Farewell to Arms' by George Peele


His golden locks Time hath to silver turn’d;

O Time too swift, O swiftness never ceasing!

His youth ’gainst time and age hath ever spurn’d,

But spurn’d in vain; youth waneth by increasing:

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

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


His helmet now shall make a hive for bees;

And, lovers’ sonnets turn’d to holy psalms,

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

And feed on prayers, which are Age his alms:

But though from court to cottage he depart,

His Saint is sure of his unspotted heart.


And when he saddest sits in homely cell,

He’ll teach his swains this carol for a song,—

‘Blest be the hearts that wish my sovereign well,

Curst be the souls that think her any wrong.’

Goddess, allow this aged man his right

To be your beadsman now that was your knight.


(Source: https://englishverse.com/poems/a_farewell_to_arms)


(Book featured in the video: The New Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1950, Chosen and Edited by Helen Gardner, Oxford Univeristy Press, First published 1972, 22nd impression 1999)

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