William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.
The DefianceThomas Flatman (16371688)
B
Your charms are transitory things,
May melt, while you at heaven aim,
Like Icarus’s waxen wings;
And you a part in his misfortune bear
Drowned in a briny ocean of despair.
The poet’s brain and painter’s hand,
As if upon the throne of love
You only should the world command:
Yet know, though you presume your title true,
There are pretenders that will rival you.
And in his squadron ’s Poverty;
There’s Age that brings along with him
A terrible artillery:
And if against all these thou keep’st thy crown,
The usurper Death will make thee lay it down.