1. By William Shakespeare

    1. Sonnet 18 (1609)
    2. Sonnet 20 (1609)

  2. By John Milton

    1. Sonnet 11 (1643)
    2. Sonnet 11 (1647)
    3. Sonnet 13 (1648)

  3. By Andrew Marvell

    1. Bermudas (1653)

  4. By William Wordsworth

    1. The World is Too Much with Us (1807)
    2. We are Seven (1798)

  5. By Joseph Conrad

    1. Heart of Darkness (1902)

Sonnet 13

To Mr. H. Lawes, on his Aires

By John Milton (1648)

1Harry whose tuneful and well measur’d Song
2First taught our English Musick how to span
3Words with just note and accent, not to scan
4With Midas Ears, committing short and long;

5Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng,
6With praise enough for Envy to look wan;
7To after age thou shalt be writ the man,
8That with smooth aire couldst humor best our tongue.

9Thou honour’st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing
10To honour thee, the Priest of Phoebus Quire
11That tun’st their happiest lines in Hymn, or Story.

12Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher
13Then his Casella, whom he woo’d to sing
14Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.