Three poets, in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.
The first in loftiness of thought surpassed,
The next in majesty, in both the last:
The force of Nature could no farther go;
To make a third she joined the former two.
ATTRIBUTION: John Dryden (1631-1700), British poet. Lines Printed under the Engraved Portrait of Milton (l. 1-6). . .