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To her most Honoured Father Thomas Dudley Esq these humbly presented

Dear Sir of late delighted with the

Of your four Sisters cloth'd in black and white,

Of fairer Dames the Sun, ne'r saw the face;

Though made a pedestal for Adams Race;

Their worth so shines in these rich lines you

Their paralels to finde I scarcely

To climbe their Climes,

I have nor strength nor

To mount so high requires an Eagles quill;

Yet view thereof did cause my thoughts to soar;

My lowly pen might wait upon these fourI bring my four times four, now meanly

To do their homage, unto yours, full glad:

Who for their Age, their worth and

Might seem of yours to claim precedency:

But by my humble hand, thus rudely

They are, your bounden handmaids to

These same are they, from whom we being

These are of all, the Life, the Nurse, the Grave,

These are the hot, the cold, the moist, the dry,

That sink, that swim, that fill, that upwards fly,

Of these consists our bodies,

Cloathes and Food,

The World, the useful, hurtful, and the good,

Sweet harmony they keep, yet jar oft

Their discord doth appear, by these harsh

Yours did contest for wealth, for Arts, for Age,

My first do shew their good, and then their rage.

My other foures do intermixed

Each others faults, and where themselves excell;

How hot and dry contend with moist and cold,

How Air and Earth no correspondence hold,

And yet in equal tempers, how they

How divers natures make one

Something of all (though mean) I did

But fear'd you'ld judge Du Bartas was my friendI honour him, but dare not wear his

My goods are true (though poor) I love no

But if I did I durst not send them

Who must reward a Thief, but with his due.

I shall not need, mine innocence to

These ragged lines, will do't, when they appear:

On what they are, your mild aspect I

Accept my best, my worst vouchsafe a Grave.

From her that to your self, more duty

Then water in the boundess Ocean flows.

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Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet (née Dudley; March 20, 1612 – September 16, 1672) was the most prominent of early English poets of North America and first write…

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