For four of my very favorite lines in all of poetry, from The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Fourth Edition, 1.
from The Canterbury Tales / by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)
Whan that April with his showres soote
The droughte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veine in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flowr