Tristram of Lyonesse and Other Poems

X.

Thomas Heywood

Algernon Charles Swinburne


TOM, if they loved thee best who called thee Tom.
    What else may all men call thee, seeing thus bright
    Even yet the laughing and the weeping light
That still thy kind old eyes are kindled from?
Small care was thine to assail and overcome
    Time and his child Oblivion: yet of right
    Thy name has part with names of lordlier might
For English love and homely sense of home,
Whose fragrance keeps thy small sweet bayleaf young
    And gives it place aloft among thy peers
    Whence many a wreath once higher strong Time has hurled:
And this thy praise is sweet on Shakespeare’s tongue—
    ‘O good old man, how well in thee appears
    The constant service of the antique world!’


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