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Home  »  The Book of Elizabethan Verse  »  William Browne (c. 1590–c. 1645)

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.

The Charm

William Browne (c. 1590–c. 1645)

SON of Erebus and Night,

Hie away; and aim thy flight,

Where consort none other fowl

Than the bat and sullen owl;

Where upon the limber grass

Poppy and mandragoras

With like simples not a few

Hang for ever drops of dew.

Where flows Lethe without coil

Softly like a stream of oil.

Hie thee thither, gentle Sleep:

With this Greek no longer keep.

Thrice I charge thee by my wand,

Thrice with moly from my hand

Do I touch Ulysses’ eyes,

And with the jaspis: then arise

Sagest Greek….