404. To Milton by Oscar Wilde
b'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'