Sonnet 13: Harry, whose tuneful and well-measured song

Harry, whose tuneful and well-measured song

      First taught our English music how to span

      Words with just note and accent, not to scan

      With Midas’ ears, committing short and long,

Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng,

      With praise enough for Envy to look wan;

      To after-age thou shalt be writ the man

      That with smooth air couldst humor best our tongue.

Thou honor’st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing

      To honor thee, the priest of Phœbus’ choir,

      That tun’st their happiest lines in hymn or story.

Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher

      Than his Casella, whom he wooed to sing,

      Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.