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Sonnets: Idea XII To The Soul

By Michael Drayton

Topics: classic

That learned Father which so firmly proves         The soul of man immortal and divine,         And doth the several offices define         Anima.    Gives her that name, as she the body moves.         Amor.    Then is she love, embracing charity.         Animus.    Moving a will in us, it is the mind;         Mens.    Retaining knowledge, still the same in kind.         Memoria.    As intellectual, it is memory.         Ratio.    In judging, reason only is her name.         Sensus.    In speedy apprehension, it is sense.         Conscientia.    In right and wrong they call her conscience;         Spiritus.    The spirit, when it to God-ward doth inflame:         These of the soul the several functions be,         Which my heart lightened by thy love doth see.

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Author:Michael Drayton

"That learned Father which so firmly proves..." by Michael Drayton

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Michael Drayton

About Michael Drayton

Michael Drayton (1563–1631) was an English poet whose "Poly-Olbion" (1612–1622) is a vast topographical poem describing the landscape and legends of England and Wales. His sonnet "Since there's no help" is among the finest of the Elizabethan era.

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"DORILVS in sorrowes deepe,         Autumne waxing ..."

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