404. To Milton by Oscar Wilde
O Wilde read by Classic Poetry Aloud: Giving voice to the poetry of the past.\nwww.classicpoetryaloud.com\n\n--------------------------------------------\n\nTo Milton\nby Oscar Wilde (1854 \u2013 1900) \n \nMilton! I think thy spirit hath passed away\nFrom these white cliffs and high-embattled towers;\nThis gorgeous fiery-coloured world of ours\nSeems fallen into ashes dull and grey,\nAnd the age changed unto a mimic play\nWherein we waste our else too-crowded hours:\nFor all our pomp and pageantry and powers\nWe are but fit to delve the common clay,\nSeeing this little isle on which we stand,\nThis England, this sea-lion of the sea,\nBy ignorant demagogues is held in fee,\nWho love her not: Dear God! is this the land\nWhich bare a triple empire in her hand\nWhen Cromwell spake the word Democracy!\n\nFirst aired: 19 November 2007\n\nFor hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index.\n\nReading \xa9 Classic Poetry Aloud 2009