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To Mr. H. Lawes on His Airs

by John Milton, 1909

Harry, whose tuneful and well-measured song
  First taught our English music how to span
  Words with just note and accent, not to scan
  With Midas' ears, committing short and long,
Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng,
  With praise enough for Envy to look wan;
  To after age thou shalt be writ the man
  That with smooth air couldst humour best our tongue.
Thou honour'st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing
  To honour thee, the priest of Phœbus' quire,
  That tunest their happiest lines in hymn or story.
Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher
  Than his Casella, whom he wooed to sing,
  Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.

Published in The Complete Poems of John Milton
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