Jump to content

User:Wrosenb2/sandbox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Farewell to Arms
To Queen Elizabeth
by George Peele
Sir Henry Lee KG
Portrait of Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley, in whose honor Peele wrote A Farewell to Arms
LanguageEnglish
SeriesPolyhymnia
FormSonnet
Rhyme schemeABABCC
Publication date1590
MetreIambic pentameter

A Farewell to Arms is an occasional sonnet written by George Peele. It is the coda of Peele's Polyhymnia, written for the Accession Day tilt of 1590.[1] The prior thirteen parts of Polyhymnia are each blank verse descriptions of pairs of contestants with vague impressions of their combat, though Peele does not name the victors. A Farewell to Arms then commemorates the tenure and retirement of Sir Henry Lee as the Queen's Champion. Lee had been the Queen's Champion since her first Accession Day tilts. In 1590 the position passed to the Earl of Cumberland.[2]

Content

[edit]

My golden locks Time hath to silver turnd.
O Time too swift, O swiftness never ceasing!
My youth 'gainst time and age hath ever spurnd,
But spurnd in vain. Youth waneith by increasing.
Beauty, strength, youth, are flowers but fading seen,
Duty, faith, love, are roots, and ever green.

My Helmet now shall make a hive for bees
And lovers' sonnets turne to holy Psalms.
A man at Armes must now serve on his knees,
And feed on pray'rs, that are Age his alms.
But though from Court to Cottage I depart,
My Saint is sure of mine unspotted heart.

And when I saddest sits in homely cell,
I'll teach my Swaines this Carrol for a song.
Blest be the hearts that wish my Sovereigne well,
Curs'd be the souls that thinke her any wrong.
Goddess, vouchsafe this aged man his right
To be your Beadsman now that was your knight.

— George Peele, "A Farewell to armes", Polhymnia,[3] 17 November 1590.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Braithwaite, William Stanley (1907). The Book of Elizabethan Verse. Boston: Herbert B. Turner & Co. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  2. ^ "George Peele". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  3. ^ A. Dyce, The Works of George Peele, vol. II, p. 195, Pickering, London, 1829.