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Abraham Cowley
  
  
 
 
| 
 FROM  Poetical
Blossoms, 1636
 To the Reader.  
     Reader  (I  know  not 
yet  whether  gentle  or  no) :  Some I
know have
 been  angry  (I dare not  assume the honor of 
their envy)  at  my  poetical
 boldness,  and  blamed  in  mine  what 
commends  other  fruits,  earliness.
 .  .  .  The  small  fire 
I  have  is  rather  blown  than  extinguished 
by this
 wind.  For  the  itch  of  poesy 
by being  angered  increaseth,  by  rubbing
 spreads farther ;  which appears in that I have ventured upon
this  second
 edition.  .  .  .  I  would 
not  be  angry  to  see  any  one  burn 
up  Pyramus
 and Thisbe,  nay  I  would  do  it 
myself,  but  that  I  hope  a  pardon 
may
 easily  be  gotten  for  the  errors 
of  ten  years  age.    My  Constantia 
and
 Philetus  confesseth  me  two  years  older 
when  I  writ  it.  .  .  .
 A.C.     
  
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Source: 
Poetry of the English Renaissance 1509-1660. 
J. William Hebel and Hoyt H. Hudson, eds. 
New York: F. S. Crofts & Co., 1941.  829.
 
 
  
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