Sonnet XXI
by John Milton
English poet, also a historian, scholar and pamphleteer. His best known work is probably Paradise Lost (1667) which was followed by Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes (1671). He is also well known for On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1629), the twin poems L'Allegro and Il Penseroso (1631), Lycidas and the masque Comus (1637).
Sonnet XXI
by John Milton
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To Cyriac Skinner Cyriac, whose grandsire on the royal bench
Of British Themis, with no mean applause
Pronounced and in his volumes taught our laws,
Which others at their bar so often wrench;
Today deep thoughts resolve with me to drench
In mirth, that after no repenting draws;
Let Euclid rest and Archimedes pause,
And what the Swede intends, and what the French.
To measure life learn thou betimes, and know
Toward solid good what leads the nearest way;
For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains,
And disapproves that care, though wise in show,
That with superfluous burden loads the day,
And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.
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