“The Poet's License! — 't is the right,
Within the rule of duty,
To look on all delightful things
Throughout the world of beauty. To gaze with rapture at the stars
That in the skies are glowing;
To see the gems of perfect dye
That in the woods are growing, —
And more than sage astronomer,
And more than learned florist,
To read the glorious homilies
Of Firmament and Forest.”

— John Godfrey Saxe

"The Poet's License".
The Masquerade and Other Poems (1866)

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John Godfrey Saxe 24

American poet 1816–1887

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