(1563-1631)
Drayton’s style can be considered forthright, a simple unconvoluted reaction against ornate rhetoric. He presents himself as something of a performer. No humble petitioner, he wants to be known. So the theme of the immortalizing power of poetry is well represented (e.g., #6).
His most dramatic and cheekiest poem is #61, “Since there’s no help, come, let us kiss and part.” The piece offers good evidence that sometimes sonnets were show-off works, more to impress other 1590s sonneteers than any particular woman.
Here’s another, #48:
Cupid, I hate thee, which I’d have thee know;
A naked starveling ever may’st thou be.
Poor rogue, go pawn thy fascia and thy bow
For some few rags wherewith to cover thee.
Or, if thou’lt not, thy archery forbear,
To some base rustic do thyself prefer,
And when corn’s sown or grown into the ear,
Practise thy quiver and turn crow-keeper.
Or, being blind, as fittest for the trade,
Go hire thyself some bungling harper’s boy;
They that are blind are often minstrels made;
So may’st thou live, to thy fair mother’s joy,
That whilst with Mars she holdeth her old way,
Thou, her blind son, may’st sit by them and play.
Works
Drayton, Michael. Idea excerpts. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1. 8th ed. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006. 999-1002.