Status Updates From The Oxford Book of English ...

"Glorious the northern lights astream;
Glorious the song when God's the theme;
Glorious the thunder's roar"

- favorite line from Christopher Smart's (rather bizarre) 'Song to David'

220. John Webster - Vanitas Vanitatum
212. John Fletcher
207. John Fletcher
206. Thomas Heywood - The Message
197. John Donne
196. John Donne
195. John Donne
187. Ben Johnson - The Shadow
183. Robert Ayton
182. Robert Ayton
180. Henry Wooton
179. Henry Wooton
173. Thomas Campion - Neptune
125. Shakespeare - Spring & Winter
113. Samuel Daniel - Sonnet V

"...Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air."

"...Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, and shut the gates of mercy on mankind."

It's not cliche, it's Gray's 'Elegy'. Pretty sure he's as English as the King James Bible and Shakespeare.

Dryden is rather ridiculous. I cannot love him.

The tragic ballads in 17th century 'Anonymous' are killing me 😭💔😭💔

Where has Henry Vaughan been all my life? ❤️‍🔥

Milton's Il Penseroso 🤍

"...Hide me from Day's garish eie,
While the Bee with Honied thie,
That at her flow'ry work doth sing,
And the Waters murmuring
With such consort as they keep
Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep..."

"Wise poets, that wrapt Truth in tales,
Knew her themselves through all her veils."

- Thomas Carew

321. John Milton - On his deceased wife.
318. John Milton - On his blindness.
315. John Milton - Sabrina
310. John Milton - L’Allegro
307. John Milton - Christs Nativity
286. George Herbert - Love
283. George Herbert - Disciples
275. Robert Herrick - To The Holy Spirit
266. Robert Herrick -
264. Robert Herrick -
262. Robert Herrick -
258. Robert Herrick - Delight in disorder.
248. Robert Herrick - To Virgins…

438. 439. 433. 418. 413. 404

435. Isaac Watts - Nativity Song
434. Isaac Watts - The Day of Judgment
405. Sir George Etherege - To a Lady…
405. Sir George Etherege - Song

366. 349. 343. 335. 306.

392. Anonymous - Philada flouts me
391. Anonymous - Love will find a way
385. Anonymous - The Call
359. Andrew Marvel - Thoughts in a garden
355. Andrew Marvel - Cromwell

296. 292. 288. 280.

"He leap'd the present age,
Possest with holy rage
To see that bright eternal Day..."

- Ben Jonson

Now in the era pages of Shakespeare sonnets, a quarter hour over one page seems almost too brief

456. Thomas Gray - The Progress of Poesy
455. Thomas Gray - The Cat drowned in a Fish Tank
445. Henry Carey - A Drinking Song
444. Henry Carey - Sally in our alley
442. Pope - The dying Christian…
441. Pope - Elegy to an unfortunate lady
440. Pope - On a Certain Lady

538. Wordsworth - Duddon
536. Wordsworth - Ode
530. Wordsworth - Daffodils
528. Wordsworth - The Solitary Reaper
522. Wordsworth - Venice
510. Joanna Baillie - The Outlaw’s Song
492. Blake - Loves Secret
489. Blake - The Tiger
475. Fanny Greville - Prayer for Indifference
474. Anna Barbauld - Life
471. Cowper - My Mary
464. Tobias Smollett- To Leven Water

650. Thomas Hood - Fair Ines
635. John Keats - That I may cease to be…
633. John Keats - La Belle Dame sans Merci
625. John Keats - “Truth is Beauty”
621. John Clare - From Northampton Asylum
599. Lord Byron - A-Roving
593. Thomas Peacock - Love and Age
576. Landor - Finis
552. Coleridge - Youth & Age
549. Coleridge - Rime of the Ancyent Mariner

16th century - poems by despised admirers of haughty women being in fashion

I liked Edmund Spenser more than I expected and Sir Philip Sydney less